India is the ninth largest industrial manufacturer in the world, while China has become the second largest. Manufacturing has been the major driver of overall economic growth of developing countries in the last 15 years. During this period, GDP of developing countries nearly doubled, but the MVA grew by 2.25 times.

The findings are based on a report from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), which aims at promoting industrial growth in developing countries. The report ‘International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 2010’ also reveals that manufacturing value added (MVA) of some major industrial countries dropped by more than 10 percent, while MVA growth of developing countries was around 2.5 percent. China’s share of the global manufacturing value was about 15.6 percent, a little higher than Japan which is 15.4 percent, and the US stands top at 19 percent. The three countries of U.S., China, and Japan produce half of the world’s manufacturing output. And according to the report the effect of the recent financial crisis on industrial growth was severe for industrialized countries.

Contribution of manufacturing in GDP increased to almost 22 percent in 2009, compared to 18 percent in 1990. Estimates of industrial growth of newly industrialized countries indicated a marginal decline. This group comprises 17 developing economies that have achieved relatively high level of industrialization. MVA in newly industrialized countries fell merely by 0.1 percent in 2009, however, the share of these countries in the world MVA still increased.

In view of geographical distribution of the global MVA, Asia contributed almost 45 percent in 2009, out of which the contribution of developing and industrialized countries (Japan, Republic of Korea, and Singapore) was 25 and 20 percent respectively. Despite some increment in 2009, the share of African developing countries was just above one percent of the world MVA. Latin American developing countries saw a slight reduction in their share of world MVA.