The four successful exceptions : official export promotion and support for export marketing in Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, China

In their export success and in having consistently favorable policy regimes for manufactured exports the four economies considered here -- Hong Kong, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan, China -- are exceptions without parallel among developing countries. They are also exceptions in the apparent effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the support and assistance provided to their firms in export marketing and related tasks. In addition to their main trade promotion organizations (TPOs) which are the main focus of this paper, these four countries have systematically fostered provision of information and support services by a wide range of private service suppliers and by associations of exporters and manufacturers, chambers of commerce and the like. Hong Kong's TPO focuses primarily on trade information and trade inquiries, and also on trade promotion including trade fairs, aimed primarily at promoting a quality image of Hong Kong's products. The TPOs of the other three combine these same clusters of activities with two others. One is market development, involving research on promising markets together with a program of assistance and goals in each promising product or industry, generally including direct assistance to firms in such areas as production capabilities and marketing strategies. The second is assistance to firms in key areas such as product design, packaging, and in some cases, even prospecting for sales abroad.