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To continue Asia's economic growth the focus for expansion and improvement must move from export manufacturing to the services sector -- primarily to cross-border trade in such modern services as finance, information and communication, and professional business services. As the Asian services-sector economies have historically been dominated by personal services rather than by more information-intensive services, serious concerns exist about their ability to rapidly and successfully grow these modern services. While Asia does have some well-known services-sector success stories -- such as in India and the Philippines -- most Asian services economies have a history of relatively slow developmental change. Removing internal and external policy and structural constraints will be key to productivity growth in modern crossborder services trade. Improving educational opportunities and strengthening infrastructure and capital and labor markets will all be needed complements to regulatory reform if Asia is to grow new and innovative service providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This process of productive and organizational flexibility, as well as increased productivity for factories and their workers, have been central to the organizational learning trajectory for certain export maquiladoras. This article analyzes some Asian and U. S. Firms operating in Tijuana, to show how, in an underdeveloped country, they have been able to create companies that are highly competitive internationally. The potential and challenges for achieving more sustainable development are also examined. The first section explains the importance of the maquiladora industry in the Mexican context, emphasizing the dynamism of the main economic variables for Asian companies and their impact on Mexico. The second section discusses the evolution of technology and labor in the maquiladoras, emphasizing Asian involvement to demonstrate that these companies may reflect enormous development potential. The third section presents types of technological learning trajectories in order to show various paths and scenarios that may take shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]