A real imports of capital and intermediate goods declined sharply for highlyindebted countries in the 1980s, these economies were faced with the need tosubstitute previously imported factors of production with domestic capital and labor. The study empirically analyzes the degree of import dependence of twelve developing countries. Estimates of the short-run elasticity of substitution characterize both imported capital and intermediate goods to behave like complements in the production process in the developing countries. Long-run substitution elasticites differ considerably among the group of economies, especially for imported machinery and equipment. The results indicate that inward-oriented strategies have not achieved the aim of reducing the import dependence of