Industry

Abstract

The developing countries have long considered industry to be a dynamic instrument of growth essential to their rapid economic and social development, and their share of total world industrial output has risen steadily, particularly since World War II. For developing countries, industrialization is not just an important engine of economic growth: it is viewed as an effective means of modernizing society, promoting new and more appropriate work habits and value systems, and reducing dependence on the export of unprocessed raw materials and natural resources. No wonder then that the Second General Conference of UNIDO, held in Lima, Peru, in 1975 (less than three years after the Stockholm Conference), declared that industrial production in developing countries ‘should be increased to the maximum possible extent and as far as possible to at least 25 per cent of total world industrial production by the year 2000’ (UNIDO, 1976). In the developed countries, on the other hand, industry has been - and still is - responsible for a substantial part (30–40 per cent) of GNP, even though the industrial scene in these countries has been changing over the last two decades in response to the requirements of environmental protection, changes in social demand, scientific and technological advances, and developments in international relations and world markets.