What's a good factory for a poor country?

[Ultra_Kool_Dude]

For an assignment I have to recommend a good factory/industry for a developing country. Does anyone have any suggestions or know of any success stories?

Here are the rules:
- It can't be a service
- It has to produces jobs
- It should be somewhat small scale so it doesn't need a multinational corporation
- It can't take away current jobs
- It can't hurt the environment too much
- It should use regional resources

I'm pretty stumped...

[jensked]

Textile??

It's labour intensive, it's not capital intensive and it can run locally.
But I think every type of new industry will get the jobs from other current industries.

[Ultra_Kool_Dude]

Thanks jensked, I needed some sort of direction.

My sister suggested chicken farming...

[ruuman]

what about about taking a leaf out of the simpsons book and colour the cartoons cells, it's a bit more interesting than the usual options.

I'd agree with jensked about textiles, I did hear that the Chinese will be dominating that market soon as the have the financial backing to afford the latest machines and cheap workforce.

I'd say the most successful industry's for developing countries are the manfucture of dangerous substances, because of the lack of health and safety they can usually beat 1st world countries by a huge margin because they consider their workers a disposable asset. But that probably a little un-ethical

[Kip_6666]

I think you'll be looking at something which needs loasd of workers, something labour extensive as mentioned above. But where the handwork is of a simpel level. Because the people working will have a low level of education.

Repetative finger work.



I used to fit leds into the new type of traffic lights for vacation work. You get a pcb plate and just stick leds in the right way. About 300 go into 1 pannel, for one light.

Thats perfect if you could setup something like that. And I'm sure theres enough countries to sell them too.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question178.htm

http://www.toyolite.com.tw/proimages/007/007-1/0101.jpg

[///M]

Jathropa seeds.

If you want to be daring, you can go for hemp, which is much more useful. The main factor for both is that they produce viable sources of energy (i.e. 'good' biodiesel) as well as having many different biproducts.

[Ultra_Kool_Dude]

ruuman - I don't think I'd get a good grade if I suggested making dangerous substances with "disposable" workers.

Kip_6666 - That's a good idea, but it might not be cost effective to ship in all the materials, and then ship them out again.

[jensked]

Ricardian trade theory:

a country specializes in that good for which it has a competitive advantage.

this table looked good when I typed it, but now it looks unformatted

Country A Country B
Soja 3 12
Textile 6 8

Hours needed for one unit of Soja/Textile

As you can see, Country A is better in everything. It needs only 3 hours to produce 1 unit of Soja and 6 hours to produce 1 unit of Textile. Country B is less efficient.
But, in international trade, Country A will specialize in Soja and Country B will specialize in Textile, because they have a comparative advantage for that product.

When they would specialize, the overall welfare and production will INCREASE. Countries specialize and they trade.
So even developing countries are better off with international trade.

That does not mean it is fair trade and that everybody gains the same, but they are better off with international trade. Both countries welfare and GDP will rise.

No idea why I just explained that [/b]

[Ultra_Kool_Dude]

So what's a good textile for a country to produce that doesn't need a lot of tech, and doesn't require huge factories?

[SiR_dude]

WHat about some business that sells bamboo and wicker furniture? Or simple wood furniture? If the materials are local, it's a shoe-in for your project...

[Ultra_Kool_Dude]

^ hmmm That might be considered hurting the environment, but I think it might work.

I was thinking about simple bicycles that could be sold on the local market.

[bone]

breading exotic plants to get medicines from it

might turn into a multinational

[ruuman]

Originally Posted by Ultra_Kool_Dude

^ hmmm That might be considered hurting the environment, but I think it might work.

I was thinking about simple bicycles that could be sold on the local market.

What about drugs, booze and cigarettes? whole economy's are built on them.

They employ a huge amount of workers, the initial investment is land and some plants. You also get the added bonus that not many country's legally do this so you have far smaller market competition.