Timbal says that defense is a resource-intensive sector which demands huge expenditures, so it is possible to reduce expenditures, especially in state arms purchases.

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Nigeria's former military rulers failed to diversify the economy away from its overdependence on the capital-intensive oil sector, which provides 95% of foreign exchange earnings and about 80% of budgetary revenues.

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Because the U.S. utility sector is so capital intensive, it must maintain investment-grade credit ratings.

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Among industries, the most aggressive growth rates are shown by the financial sector and data-intensive science, with compounded annual growth rates (CAGRs) of 95 percent and 70 percent, respectively.

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The service sector, which is less capital-intensive, employs a bigger share of the workforce in Britain than it does in Germany, for instance but again that does not explain the gap with America.

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Furthermore, oil-dependent governments, facing a population boom and realizing that they need to diversify their economy to create jobs and wealth, are subsidizing the industrial sector to manufacture plastics, chemicals and aluminum, all energy-intensive goods.

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But Paul Wellings, chair of the research-intensive 1994 Group of universities, emphasised the need for maintaining quality across a diverse higher education sector.

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