EN
The authors have made an attempt at evaluating long-term prospects for production and export of light-industry products against the background of structural changes taking place in the world economy and in the international trade. Two phenomena deserve special attenation here. First of all, the increased role played by developing countrlea as producers and, first of all, as exporters of light-industry products based on cheap labour and their own raw materials base in many cases. The processes of transferring labour-intensive production from highly developed to developing countries are becoming more and more intensified. A group of new and relatively big producers includes such countries as Hongkong, Taiwan, South Korea. Brasil etc. On the other hand, there occur substantial technological changes in the light industry, which consist in more economical use of raw materials and decreasing role of natural components being replaced by synthetic components.