Edited by Samuel Wangwe
Published by Routledge and the UNU Press, 1995
ISBN 0-415-12691-6, 436 pages

Abstract
The economic crisis which has impacted on Africa in the past decade is raising questions about Africa's future position in world trade and its chances for developing a competitive industrial structure.
Professor Wangwe addresses these questions on the basis of commissioned studies of fifty-five exporting manufacturers in six African countries, carried out by local experts of considerable standing in the field. He examines the question of why some firms in the sub-Saharan economies have been able to maintain their positions in the world market despite generally unfavourable circumstances. In particular the papers seek to understand how these firms have been able to sustain their competitiveness in the face of rapid technological change in the international economy in the context of the threats and promises such change presents to Africa. A case is made for selective complementary investments by governments to build the technological capabilities which are necessary for attaining and maintaining competitiveness.

The country studies present new empirical research and an innovative conceptual framework which will be of interest to academics in the development field as well as to government and international policy makers.