A Country's Competitive Advantage

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A business environment that fosters national competitiveness pays dividends across the board. Whatever its stage of development, expo strategies that support innovation and use of technology will help a country move forward.

Recent studies of national competitiveness have two messages for strategy makers:

* Competitive advantage can be created or, at the very least, raised significantly.

* The improvement of competitiveness within an economy should be a key element of national export strategy.

This means strategic initiatives should address competitiveness issues not only at the level of the individual product and service sector but at the national level as well.

Why national rather than simply sectoral? First, what makes a nation more competitive on the international scene are factors that are cross-sectoral rather than simply industry-specific. Second, the measures needed to increase competitiveness will vary with the stage of a country's economic development and the opportunities for exporters.

As Michael Porter, Director of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Harvard Business School, noted, regarding the …