Russian Federation : How Services Contribute to Competitiveness
Globalization is creating many new trade and growth opportunities, with services trade increasingly becoming an issue for export-oriented economies. Services are important to country trade strategies, because they represent activities in which coun...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26796623/russian-federation-services-contribute-competitiveness http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25143 |
| Summary: | Globalization is creating many new trade
and growth opportunities, with services trade increasingly
becoming an issue for export-oriented economies. Services
are important to country trade strategies, because they
represent activities in which countries may have a
comparative advantage, and they are drivers of
competitiveness for the whole economy. This paper uses data
from the World Development Indicators, two new databases
(the Export in Value-Added database from the Global Trade
Analysis Project, and Trade in Services data), and
firm-level data. The paper employs a wide range of
indicators to analyze the trade competitiveness of the
services sector in the Russian Federation. Since service
exports are less than would be expected considering
Russia's level of development, the study finds that the
contribution of services to export diversification could be
heightened significantly. The scale of Russian business
services exports is relatively low, although exports of
traditional services, like transport and travel, are
performing well. Despite the relatively minor importance of
exports of modern services, the category of other business
services has in recent years been growing fast, and business
services have strengthened their revealed comparative
advantages. Yet Russia still has much potential for
expanding trade in modern services. There is also potential
to diversify services exports to other markets, such as
France, Germany, Japan, and elsewhere in Asia, which today
seems underexploited. Finally, although exports of direct
services are low, services such as transport, distribution,
finance, and other business services are making major
contributions to other exports, in particular energy. |
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