One country which is resource poor, yet has a thriving export economy, is Japan. Following the concept of comparative advantage, Japan imports scarce natural resources and exports goods which the highly skilled Japanese labor force produces with great efficiency and at low cost. A critical factor for the Japanese economy is a high rate of domestic savings by Japanese citizens. The abundant supply of savings is available for businesses to borrow at a low cost in order to use for investment in capital which can be used by Japanese workers to convert imported natural resources into goods with a greater value. For another example, read how the economy in China is evolving.
Technology changes at an increasingly rapid pace.
But the education and skills required to effectively utilize the technology evolve much more slowly. In contrast are factors such as exchange rates. Dramatic shifts in exchange rates can rapidly modify the relative prices of goods traded between two or more countries. For some goods, the historical relationship of comparative advantage based on endowments and skills can rapidly be altered because of changes in the comparable international prices of those goods.