Subcontracting enterprisescanbe locked into the lowvalueadded activities of GVC because ofpathdependency, which is influenced by different levelreasons.
Their official data on exports show that lowvalueadded production accounts for a declining share of total exports, falling to below 50 percent since 2008.
The challenge for the recently established devolved administration will be to manage the next phase of this evolution from an economy heavily dependent on traditional 'low valueadded' businesses, to one that will be increasingly reliant on knowledge based and services industries.