 |
| BUILDING COMPETITIVE INDUSTRIES: INVESTMENT, INNOVATION AND INCLUSION | |
| Saturday September 24, 2011
09:30 AM - 10:30 AM
H Auditorium |
| |
|
|
| Archive video link available at http://www.worldbank.org/pos/
In the next decade developing countries will need to induce entrepreneurs
to invest trillions of dollars - at least $6 trillion over the decade -
to harness unprecedented surges in their labor forces. This scale
requires a policy response with all viable tools; in particular, development
agencies, policy makers and the private sector must bridge the gap between
economy-wide interventions and investment at the firm level.
Industries, the 'ecosystems' in which firms operate, often provide this
bridge. Industries motivate policy-makers to make the policies and
provide the public goods that reduce cost and risk for investments; constraints
to growth are often industry-specific; and both the private sector and
policy makers tend to think and organize in terms of industries.
In addition, given the greater density of interactions among firms within
the same industry, innovation tends to diffuse within them, even when initial
ideas result from cross-fertilization. Conversely, industries which
are not the site of innovation and its diffusion quickly become uncompetitive.
For these reasons, both competitive economies broadly and firm-level investment
opportunities are built on competitive industries. Almost all historical
success stories have focused their approach on enhancing the competitiveness
of particular industries; yet so too have many faltering countries. Attempts
to build competitive industries have been at times transformative successes
and, at least as often, wasted effort.
One of the most urgent tasks facing the development community therefore
is how to tilt this balance towards success. Doing so will require,
among other things, connecting thinkers and practitioners, as this plenary
aimed to do: joining a prominent researcher, a senior official, and a private
sector leader.
Key questions addressed included:
- How can developing countries create competitive
industries that generate and attract significant investment and foster
innovation?
- What are the most frequent causes of success
and failure, and how do those interact with different local contexts -
economic, political and social?
- What are the most effective means to deeply
engage the private sector, while avoiding capture and minimizing the effects
of vested interests?
| |
| | |
|
|
| |
| | |
|
| | Moderator(s): | | Martin Wolf , Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times, United Kingdom
|
| |
|
|
| |
| | Organized by: | | Jamile Ramadan and Ilias Skamnelos, Financial and Private Sector Development – World Bank Group |
| |
|
|
| |
| Last modified on: 09/28/2011 05:09:39 PM | |