India’s 2022 global commercial services exports share doubled to 4.4%: WTO-World Bank
commercial services exports to 4.4% in 2022 from 2% in 2005, the World Bank and World Trade Organization (WTO) said Monday. In a report titled ‘Trade in services for development’, they said that in India, South Africa and Türkiye, jobs directly linked to cross-border services exports account for more than 10% of total services sector jobs.
“The developing economies’ impressive trade performance under this expanded measure of trade in services is largely due to four economies that rank as leading services exporters and importers- China; Hong Kong, China; Singapore; India,” they said in the report. As per the report, India and the Philippines will need to upskill and reskill their workforces and invest in the development of their domestic services sectors – particularly in terms of R&D to keep pace with rapidly changing technology and still remain competitive and progress up the value chain.
“India has become a popular destination for medical travel, and hosted around 3.5 million foreign patients from 2009 to 2019,” they said. Foreign patients from developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as from developing countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, go to India in search of less costly, high-quality treatment, according to the report.
Noting that services value-added accounted for over 51% of India’s total exports in 2018, the two organisations said that India’s experience highlights how reforms to facilitate foreign direct investment (FDI) in services can “ignite positive growth dynamics by boosting participation in foreign manufacturing value chains”. In the 1990s, policy changes bringing about better regulation and greater openness to FDI in services provided manufacturing
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