Key Facts – Increasing Global Competition


“The next 50 years will see major changes in the relative size of world economies. Fast growth in China and India will make their combined GDP measured at 2005 Purchasing Power Parities(PPPs), soon surpass that of the G7 economies and exceed that of the entire current OECD membership by 2060.”

Source: OECD Report: Looking to 2060: Long-term global growth prospects


“The International Budget Partnership estimates that developing countries spend $820 billion a year on procurement-related transactions. But procurement is one of the government functionsmost prone to corruption. According to Transparency International, up to a fifth of the value of government contracts may be lost to corruption.”

Source: World Bank Report


“In 2012, the two dozen or so U.S. construction and engineering companies that compete in the field captured barely 14 percent of the revenues earned by international companies outside their home markets.”

Source: Bridge to Nowhere, Foreign Affairs Magazine Nov/Dec 2013


“Infrastructure is now the single largest business line of the [World Bank] Group: It represents 43 percent of the total assistance of the Group to low- and middle-income countries and the private sector.”

Source: World Bank Infrastructure Portfolio


“The ‘business case’ for corporate focus on development lays at the intersection of development activities and core business operations, and it is constantly evolving. For most U.S. companies-especially in the extractive, financial services, telecommunications, consumer goods, and agricultural industries-there are three bottom-line reasons to promote development: (1) market access; (2) improved operational efficiency; and (3) a more secure operating environment.”

Source: A Report of the CSIS Executive Council on Development Our Shared Opportunity A Vision for Global Prosperity. Publication. Washington, DC: CSIS, 2013. Print.


“The power of U.S. foreign assistance can be enhanced through a strategy that blends trade, investment, and development. At no other time in history has U.S. foreign aid made up such a small share of global capital flows. In 1960, public capital accounted for 71 percent of financial flows to the developing world. Today it stands at only 9 percent. Although this aid and U.S. leader- ship make a tremendous difference in international relations, the private sector, through its flows of capital, technology,and knowledge, has become a vital force in development. With stronger policies and better coordination, federal aid agencies and the U.S. private sector can significantly improve long-term development outcomes.”

Source: A Report of the CSIS Executive Council on Development Our Shared Opportunity A Vision for Global Prosperity. Publication. Washington, DC: CSIS, 2013. Print.


“China Development Bank and China Export-Import Bank signed loans of at least $110bn (£70bn) to other developing country governments and companies in 2009 and 2010, according to Financial Times research. The equivalent arms of the World Bank made loan commitments of $100.3bn from mid-2008 to mid-2010.”

Source: Financial Times


“Focusing U.S. development assistance on broad-based growth could enable the United States to make foreign aid as we know it today obsolete in 25 years.”

Source: A Report of the CSIS Executive Council on Development Our Shared Opportunity A Vision for Global Prosperity. Publication. Washington, DC: CSIS, 2013. Print.


“Since 2000, GDP per capita of developing countries has grown by 4.7 percent, with developing country G-20 members performing particularly strongly. Meanwhile developed countries only grew by 0.9 percent. As a result, developing countries now account for more than half of world output.”

Source: World Trade Organization World Trade Report, 2014


“The old patterns of world trade dominated by the advanced economies in the North are being transformed as emerging economies in the South become new poles of trade expansion. Since 1990, South-South trade – that is, trade among emerging and other developing economies has grown from 8 percent of world trade in 1990 to around 25 percent today, and is projected to reach 30 percent by 2030.”

Source: World Trade Organization World Trade Report, 2014


“GDP growth has moved hand in hand with integration in the world economy. The share of developing economies in world output increased from 23 percent to 40 percent between 2000 and 2012. The share of these countries in world trade also rose from 33 percent to 48 percent.”

Source: World Trade Organization World Trade Report, 2014