At the start of the 21st century, developing economies were a source of unbounded optimism

and fierce ambition, but the pandemic has revealed a very different picture. Many poor and

middle-income countries seem to be losing the knack of catching up with the richest ones.

You're listening to Money Talks from the Economist, our weekly podcast on the markets,

the economy and the world of business. I'm Ratchna Sharnbogue, finance editor at The Economist,

and on today's show, is the golden age of emerging markets over?

The reform that's needed to execute the catch of growth, which your tax book suggests,

is there for the taking. Just seems to be very difficult for countries to actually implement.

So this is a big time for the private sector to really step in and do things differently,

but faster in a much less conservative way.

Just before the financial crisis, when globalization was going full throttle,

some 40% of all footwear exported around the world came from just one country, China.

Chinese manufacturing capacity had exploded, helping carry it to jaw-dropping economic growth.

It's share of global GDP tripled in less than 20 years.

For a while, it looked like all that other emerging economies had to do to follow in those

phenomenal footsteps was to copy a seemingly simple formula.

Embrace new technology, put it to work in manufacturing, and open up to trade

to sell those shiny new goods to the world.

But a decade later, China still made a third of all the shoes shipped worldwide.

Much of its lost share has gone to just one country, its next-door neighbour, Vietnam.

So why has it proved so difficult for other countries to follow China's example?

And how can countries now battered by the pandemic get back on that path to rapid growth?

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