Despite widespread agreement among economists that labor intensive manufacturing has contributed mightily to rapid development in china and other fast growing economies most developing countries have had little success in raising the share of manufacturing in production employment or exports tales from the development frontier recounts efforts to establish light manufacturing clusters in several asian and african countries looking in particular at china a companion volume to light . Tales from the development frontier how china and other countries harness light manufacturing to create jobs and prosperity hinh t dinh thomas g rawski ali zafar lihong wang and eleonora mavroeidi with xin tong and pengfei li a the world bank washington dc contents foreword xi preface xiii acknowledgments xv about the authors and contributors xxi abbreviations xxiii introduction 1 . Tales from the development frontier recounts efforts to establish light manufacturing clusters in several asian and african countries looking in particular at china a companion volume to light manufacturing in africa which laid out a strategy for injecting new industrial growth nodes into african economies tales from the development frontier focuses on the six main binding constraints to competitiveness that nascent light manufacturing industries must overcome in developing countries . Tales from the development frontier how china and other countries harness light manufacturing to create jobs and prosperity by hinh t dinh thomas g rawski ali zafar lihong wang and eleonora mavroeidi with public disclosure authorized world bank