At its best, strategic planning for an export strategy combines learning from the past, exploring the future and coping with unpredictability. This handbook explains how the Commonwealth Secretariat helps countries develop national export strategies with a clear purpose, strategies that are actionoriented, and which recognise the interrelationship between technological, economic, social, political and cultural aspects of society. It will be useful for all government economic planners, particularly in developing countries, who are concerned to learn from experience in developing and implementing national export strategies as part of the drive for national economic development.