For information only - not an official document
UNIS/OUS/045
17 August 2010
Industrial Policy is Back, Key to Sustainable Development, Say Contributors to New Issue of Making It Magazine
VIENNA, 17 August (UN Information Service) - Industrial policy is not a taboo any more and has a key role to play in the world's transition to a resource-efficient, low-carbon growth trajectory, according to authors writing in the latest issue of the magazine Making It: Industry for Development, published by UNIDO.
"There is an open acknowledgment, even among critics and sceptics, that the declaration of the demise of industrial policy may have been premature," writes Ha-Joon Chang of Cambridge University.
"People are increasingly accepting that at least some economies need to rebalance their economies away from the over-blown financial sector, and that this may require active industrial policy. With the exposure of the double standards of the rich countries, developing countries are going to have an easier time defending their industrial policy against criticisms by donor governments and the international financial institutions."
Professor Jayati Ghosh argues that the shift to cleaner, greener technologies of production "clearly requires proactive industrial policy", and Wilfried Luetkenhorst, UNIDO Managing Director, says that in the global context of climate change and resource scarcity "there will be no solutions without developing and diffusing new industrial technologies".
The latest issue of Making It also includes an exclusive interview with Chen Deming, Minister of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, in which he outlines the policies that have helped lift several hundred million people out of absolute poverty since the 1970s, and discusses the economic transformation needed to deal with the challenges now facing China's economy. Chen Deming speaks about the need to address "many deep-rooted problems", including a low level of consumer spending, the vulnerability of the rural economy, and industrial pollution of the environment.
Other articles examine whether microfinance is really an effective poverty reduction tool; the role that workplace can play in the wider struggle to limit the spread and effects of HIV/AIDS; and the importance of international cooperation for national prosperity.
To read the articles, please visit the Making It website at: www.makingitmagazine.net
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For further information, please contact:
Charles
Arthur
Editor, Making It
Telephone: (+43-1) 26026-3638
Email:
c.arthur@unido.org
