Why India should focus on manufacturing

Low-income countries with large shares of employment in agriculture (such as Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan, and Thailand) need to develop industries and services that absorb labour, according to the Asian Development Bank. Many Asian economies are moving directly from the agricultural sector to the services sector, bypassing industrialisation.


Asia’s transformation has been fast, but uneven.

- One group of economies — Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taipei — rapidly industrialised to become highincome countries.

- Some, including China, Malaysia and Thailand, are transforming more slowly.

- Other developing Asian nations, such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines, are changing even more slowly.