Editing Service economy (section)

==Role of the service economy in development==
Services constitute over 50% of GDP in low income countries and as their economies continue to develop, the importance of services in the economy continues to grow.<ref name="odi.org.uk">Massimiliano Cali, Karen Ellis and Dirk Willem te Velde (2008) [http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/3484.pdf The contribution of services to development: The role of regulation and trade liberalisation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923191616/https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/3484.pdf |date=2020-09-23 }} London: Overseas Development Institute</ref> The service economy is also key to growth, for instance it accounted for 47% of economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2000–2005 (industry contributed 37% and agriculture 16% in the same period).<ref name="odi.org.uk"/> This means that recent economic growth in Africa relies as much on services as on natural resources or textiles, despite many of those countries benefiting from trade preferences in [[Primary sector of the economy|primary]] and [[secondary goods]]. As a result, employment is also adjusting to the changes and people are leaving the agricultural sector to find work in the service economy. This job creation is particularly useful as often it provides employment for low skilled labour in the tourism and retail sectors, thus benefiting the poor in particular and representing an overall net increase in employment.<ref name="odi.org.uk"/> The service economy in developing countries is most often made up of the following:
* [[Financial services]]
* [[Tourism]]
* [[Distribution (economics)|Distribution]]
* [[Health services|Health]], and
* [[Education]]
The export potential of many of these products is already well understood, e.g. in tourism, financial services and transport, however, new opportunities are arising in other sectors, such as the health sector. For example:
* Indian companies who provide scanning services for US hospitals
* South Africa is developing a market for surgery and tourism packages
* India, the Philippines, South Africa and Mauritius have experienced rapid growth in IT services, such as call centers, back-office functions and software development.