The international specialization of production (SMEs) is understood as a form of division of labor between countries in which the growth of the concentration of homogeneous production in the world occurs on the basis of the process of differentiation of national production, isolation into independent (separate) technological processes, into separate branches and sub-branches of production of labor products in excess of domestic needs, which increases the interdependence of national economies. For example, Japan specializes in the production of cars, ships, electronics, watches; Namibia for uranium and diamond mining; Zambia is an exporter of copper ore and refined copper; Colombia is one of the largest producers of coffee. Specializing in the production of a certain group of goods, specific countries receive the necessary scarce goods for them on the international market through exchange with other countries specializing in other groups of goods.
The development of specialization of production is a consequence of technological progress. In the conditions of the current stage of STD, the mutual influence of specialization and the development of technology is increasing. Here’s how it works: In the structure of the international division of labor, a single division of labor acquires the most active role. The development of integrated mechanization and automation of production based on the widespread use of computers, microprocessor technology and robotics, including the introduction of flexible automated production systems, causes the deepening, first of all, of detailed, node-by-node and technological international specialization of production.
International specialization of production (SMEs) is developing in two directions: production and territorial. In turn, the production direction is divided into intersectoral, intra-branch specialization and specialization of individual enterprises. In the territorial aspect, SMEs involve the specialization of individual countries and regions in the production of certain products and their parts for the world market.
The main types of SMEs are subject (production of finished products), detailed (production of parts, components of products), technological (implementation of individual operations or performance of individual technological processes). The specialization of enterprises of different countries in the manufacture of partial products is associated with modern scientific and technological development. The complication of the technological structure of production has led to an increase in the number of parts and assemblies used in the finished product. For example, in a passenger car there are up to 20 thousand parts and assemblies, in rolling mills – about 100 thousand, in electric locomotives – up to 250 thousand. A Russian consumer who buys a car of this brand in Moscow actually receives only one third of purely Swedish products. More than 60% of components are imported by Sweden. Technological specialization means concentrating the efforts of countries on the implementation of individual operations for the manufacture of the finished product (i.e. the implementation of individual technological processes, for example, assembly, welding, painting, production of castings, blanks, etc.). An example of international technological specialization is the supply of alumina from abroad to Russia and the smelting of aluminum from it.
International specialization has gone through several stages of development.
In the 30s of the twentieth century. in the world prevailed international intersectoral specialization. For example, developed countries specialized in manufacturing products, while developing countries specialized in extractive industries. In the 1950s and 1960s, the leading place continued to be occupied by intersectoral specialization, but already at the level of primary industries (automobile and tractor building, aircraft construction, production of shoes, watches, etc.).
In the 1970s and 1980s, intra-industry specialization and the corresponding international exchange of analogue goods came to the fore, stimulating detailed and technological specialization. Various combinations of the same technological techniques and a certain set of parts and components make it possible to obtain products that are different in their functional purpose. Assemblies and parts become the initial structural elements of new types of products.
Recently, specialization in the production of complete equipment, the construction of production enterprises on a turnkey basis has developed.
Industries that determine the nature of the international specialization of a country’s production are internationally specialized industries. They are distinguished by a higher export quota in production in comparison with other industries, a higher share in national GDP in comparison with the world. Clarifies the concept of “internationally specialized industry” category “internationally specialized products”. The latter usually includes products that are the subject of two- and multilateral agreements on international specialization and cooperation of production, as well as goods produced in a particular country and covering the needs of the world market in them. Internationally specialized are also the products of international companies engaged in the division of labor, which place their structural units in different countries of the world.
With the current specialization of various states in world economic relations, the experience of the United States, which has significantly changed its “zone of responsibility” over the past 20-25 years under the influence of increasing competition from other industrially developed, as well as newly industrialized countries, seems extremely indicative. It is obvious that America has long ceased to be the “world forge” in the production of engineering products. Not only the United States is the leader in the production of automotive, computer, road-building and other specialized equipment, electronic equipment. The listed products in some cases are produced even more qualitatively and often at a lower cost in other countries. American manufacturers (at least in the United States) over the past decade have stopped forcing the production of cars, computers, household communications equipment, etc. Mass production of technically complex products has proved more profitable in the newly industrialized countries of Asia and Latin America. A high degree of automation of technological processes helped to revise the requirements for the qualification of labor resources, which eventually made it possible to produce products outside the United States that were in no way inferior to the American ones in terms of quality.
Currently, the United States specializes in communication and a number of other industries that determine the degree of the country’s involvement in the global scientific and technological development and provide the country with a priority position in it. Such production includes the development and production of a wide range of machines, materials that currently exist only in laboratory and experimental conditions and at the initial stage of development; these include genetic engineering and biotechnology (including work on the creation of “protein” computers), the development of fiber-optic direction in electronization, the expansion of the scope and nomenclature of lasers; production of space, aircraft and aircraft; conservation of energy and the use of its new sources; creation of progressive composite materials, development of electronic printing, etc. It should be noted that in the field of development and production of advanced materials and biotechnology, American firms today are leading in the world market. The production of these most important components of the industry of the XXI century, we can say, is almost monopolized by two corporations – Westinghouse Electric and General Electric (and in the part relating to the coating of silicon chips with a superconducting film to increase the speed of computers – is completely monopolized). Japanese, for example, producers are only beginning to study the problem in order to bring the technologies developed in the United States in line with the conditions of conveyor and in-line production. The United States accounts for half of the world’s production of optical fibers, or about 1.8 million km. Currently, American manufacturers own at least 40% of the artificial intelligence market in Japan. Today, and in a certain perspective, the global computer software market is controlled by the United States, which accounts for more than 60% of its value. The EU countries (approximately 1/3 of the cost) and Japan (1/5) are also represented in this market.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Belarus faced a fundamentally new awareness of the importance of the external factor for the socio-economic development of the country. The existing stable economic ties with the republics of the Soviet Union began to be broken. Belarus, which was, in fact, the “assembly shop” of the USSR and formed a powerful production national economic complex focused on meeting the needs of the entire Soviet economy, had a lot of problems with the sale of traditional industrial and agricultural products, on which the republic specialized for decades. In addition, in the early 90s. some post-Soviet republics pursued a policy of curtailing mutual trade and economic relations, considering each other a kind of “rearguard” of the world economy. And only since the mid-90s. thanks to the efforts of the leaders of the Belarusian state, initiated, first of all, the process of Belarusian-Russian economic integration, the situation gradually began to change for the better.
For example, in 2001 the Republic of Belarus increased output in 247 types of products out of 572 most important. Positive results have been achieved in the production sector due to the development of more than 800 items of new products. The level of exports of agricultural products in 2001 exceeded the same indicators of all previous years. The agrarian treasury of the republic received more than $ 400 billion.
In modern conditions, due to the unification of most of the world’s states into a single economic system with a developed commodity exchange and division of labor, it is irrational to “disperse” the potential of one country to raise all modern sectors of the economy. It seems expedient to concentrate production resources only on those sectors of activity in which a given country is able to achieve better results in comparison with other participants in world production and for the development of which there are objective conditions for the development of this country (natural resources, technological traditions, research reserve, qualified personnel).
Specialization creates the prerequisites for international cooperation, i.e. for the formation of long-term production ties between specialized enterprises located in different countries of the world.