Building industrial competitiveness in developing countries

Rapid technological change poses a major challenge to developing countries today. Most countries in the process of industrial development seek to gain access to new technologies, as users if not as producers. They are aware that these technologies will affect their ability to build modern industry and to compete on world markets. The spread of new technologies will largely determine the patterns of competition and trade both among developing countries and between them and OECD countries. Thus OECD countries will also be faced with the challenge of industrial reconstructing as a consequence of technological development in the developing world.
The final outcome will depend in part on factors that vary from one industry or type of economic activity to another and from one type of technology to another. But to an important extent it will also ultimately reflect the influence of factors that are specific to each country concerned.