Therefore, in contrast to what some observers might think, the current process of globalisation per se is neither new nor of special recent relevance. However, the pace of this process has been increasing rapidly for more than a decade now. In particular, declining costs of telecommunication and transportation have been the main drivers of this development.
In addition, skill levels in many regions of the world have improved  2  BIS Review 27/2008  considerably as has the quality of goods and services produced in formerly rather underdeveloped countries. What has changed the face of globalisation is the fact that globalisation nowadays extends to a larger group of countries than in the past.