2.1. Current industrial policy in major world economies While a comprehensive overview of the (constantly changing) industrial policies around the world is beyond of the scope of this exercise, some more notable examples come, apart from Singapore’s ITP, from Germany, France, United Kingdom and Spain (Garcia C. A., & Coulter, S., 2017), the United States (Deloitte, 2017) and China (Kenderdine, T., 2017). The European Union also launched a new industrial policy strategy in 2017. Furthermore, several recent reviews by international organisations provide more in-depth analysis of national industrial and productive transformation strategies (ILO, 2014; OECD 2017a). The most recent initiative, which is worth analysing, is the newly adopted European Commission Communication on a renewed EU industrial policy strategy (European Commission, 2017), developed following the requests, earlier in the year, of European Member States through the European Council conclusions (Council of the European Union, 2017a) and European Parliament resolution (European Parliament, 2017). European Union, compared to the major national global economies – US, China, Japan or Germany is a combined supra- and cross-national body, resulting in many legal, administrative and institutional specificities not directly comparable to policies adopted at national level. Still, being a very recent initiative, it represents the latest thinking and priorities both from the perspective from Europe as a continent and integrated economic zone as well as supported by the EU Member States (Council of the European Union, 2017b). This new industrial policy strategy for Europe identifies six areas to be acted upon, in partnership with the EU Member States, regions, cities and the private sector: -
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Empowering companies and individuals by building deeper and fairer single European market, stressing the need and benefits of further integration of business activities within European and global value chains but also “supporting industry, people and communities to adapt to social, environmental and economic change”; particularly through education and training measures; Digital transformation of industry, aiming to boost the uptake of digital technologies; Building upon industrial leadership in low-carbon and circular economy, with a particular emphasis on the development of automotive industry; Promoting investment, particularly investment in intangible capital, where Europe is lagging behind the US and emphasis investment in defence sector; Supporting industrial innovation; Extending international dimensions, to ensure open but fair and sustainable trade;
As regards initiatives of EU Member States, the state of play can be summarised as following, based on several recent reviews (European Parliament, 2015; Garcia C. A., & Coulter, S., 2017): -
In Germany, given strong government capacity and fiscal position almost unscathed by global economic recession as well as broad-based industrial capabilities, a relatively ambitious strategy, with broad strategic goals and mostly horizontal (sector-neutral) approach is pursued in cooperation between federal and state governments in promoting investment in research, education and infrastructure, with 8.4 billion EUR for technology promotion between 2012 and 2015; 7 billion EUR for education between 2011 and 2015 and with planned further 6 billion EUR for education as well as 3 billion EUR for research between 2016 and 2020. Furthermore, 10 billion EUR is also for infrastructure and energy efficiency expenditure between 2016 and 2018. For implementation and coordination with firms, Germany relies on networks of independent Max Plank and Fraunhofen institutes and places particular emphasis on SME’s via regional clusters and links between firms, public research bodies and finance
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