Linking export opportunities of products and services: the case of South Africa

Abstract

Trade in services has been playing an increasingly important role in the economic growth and development of many countries. In addition it has been found that services trade is more crisis-resilient than goods trade, leading to the need for developing countries especially to explore export opportunities in this sector. However, increasing the exports of services is a major challenge for most countries, given the complicated nature of services trade. Many governments are unaware of potential export opportunities for services and are therefore unable to successfully promote services in the right markets. In their attempts to explore new markets, most services firms tend to follow products in their exporting efforts due to products.