Manufacturing is fundamentally important to a thriving, vibrant economy, and the notion that the economy can evolve and grow based on services alone is nonsense. If we ever needed evidence, just look at the impact of the GFC on the “service” economies compared to those, largely in the developing world, who still rely on manufacturing, or the Australian economy that benefits from the provision of inputs to manufacturing, although we do precious little ourselves.
The reduction in the technical education of our kids is appalling, by default we have accepted that manufacturing is yesterdays way of developing the economy, that there is some logical evolution along a continuum from basic manufacturing of small, cheap imitations through to increasingly complicated manufacturing, and then to services, and this is an inevitable process all economies go through as they evolve and develop.
If you asked China or India what they wanted from you, would they ask for assistance to develop a new financial product, or would they ask for a lend of your engineering expertise?
Totally agree that a strong manufacturing sector is critical for the future growth and survival of our economy, I wonder why others don’t see it the same way. We promote Australian manufacturing on http://www.BuyAustralianMade.com.au. In jan 2011 we will be also releasing an iphone app that will make it easy and fun to find the Aussie made products on supermarket shelves.