The Importance of Services for Consumers and Producers, Traders and Investors

Services are an important input for virtually all commercial activities, including other services, and a core determinant of the quality of life. No economy or social community could prosper without adequate transportation, communication, education or health services.

Developed and developing economies have built competitive service industries – the most visible in developing countries include tourism, construction and transport – and benefit from the efficiency of a modern service infrastructure. Services exports may constitute an important foreign-currency earner and contribute to overall economic expansion. The attendant employment effects could help to stem migration from less developed regions and provide a nucleus for self-sustained growth.

The quality of available business services may prove crucial to development. Research in Latin America in the 1980s by UNCTAD indicated that one of the primary distinctions between developed and developing economies was the availability of highly specialized business services. More recent research in Asia, Africa and the Middle East has confirmed the importance of business services of international quality that are customized according to local commercial needs.