Industrialization key to developing world's growth

A key Chinese think tank called on Monday for greater efforts to propel industrialization in developing economies to promote global development, with a focus on unleashing their comparative and late-mover advantages.

Industrialization, as an important path for developing economies to flourish, is now faced with multiple challenges and requires joint efforts to facilitate the process, the Center for International Knowledge on Development said in the Global Development Report on Monday.

The report, as part of China's efforts to implement the Global Development Initiative it proposed in September 2021, said developing economies have favorable conditions for industrialization brought by digital transformation and green growth, but also grapple with the impediments of shifts in production factors, tightening environmental constraints and a changing global industrial landscape.

The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, might accelerate the relocation of the global value chain, affecting industrialization and foreign investment in developing countries, the report said, citing that lower-middle-income countries witnessed a sharp drop in manufacturing employment as a proportion of total employment in 2020.

To help developing countries leverage their comparative advantages in industrialization, the report called for efforts to enhance the exchange and coordination of industrial policies.

It is sensible for the world to strengthen industrial policy coordination to create a friendly policy environment for industrialization in developing countries and to help them become more capable of independently making industrial policies and developing priority industries in line with their resource endowments and industrial foundations, the report said.

The report underlined the necessity of strengthening international cooperation on new industrialization and making full use of late-mover advantages enjoyed by developing economies, proposing to amplify technology transfers to them and upholding the security and stability of the global industrial chain.

It also encouraged efforts to promote synergy in industrialization cooperation under various mechanisms, including supporting the role of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and promoting synergy among the GDI and regional industrial development strategies.

Stephen Bainous Kargbo, representative and head of regional office in China at UNIDO, said he was very pleased with the launch of the report, which shares common ground with the institution in stressing the importance of industrialization.

Industrialization is not only indispensable for human development and poverty elimination, but critical for the achievement of other aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals, he said.

Apart from offering policy recommendations in regard to industrialization in developing economies, the report made suggestions from seven other perspectives, including poverty reduction, food security and human health betterment, all to provide intelligence support to a shared development of the world.

"We stand ready to work with all partners to enhance knowledge sharing on global development and will release subsequent reports in due course," the report said.