Launch of Industrial Development Report 2016 (IDR 2016) “The Role of Technology and Innovation in Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development”

IDR 2016 has shown that technology should be closely linked with innovation to ensure a sustainable development. A sustainable and inclusive industrialization can rapidly be achieved when policy makers provide appropriate policies to facilitate the process of industrialization, avoiding the mistakes other countries have made earlier. This report also refers to the urgency of international cooperation to promote technological changes and achieve an inclusive and sustainable industrial development.

Through evidence-based research and analysis, IDR 2016 highly appreciates the role of technology and technological innovation in the process of industrialization and affirms the necessity of industrialization for the development process. Key findings of the report indicate that technology can help promote all three dimensions of developments, i.e. economy, society, and environment. The first dimension refers to the ability of a country to change its own structure so as to maintain a high growth rate over a long period of time in order to catch up with more developed countries.  The second dimension relates to the coverage of the process of changing this structure in terms of reducing poverty, improving the quality of life, creating job opportunities, and distributing income, property, and social welfare more equitably. The third dimension is environmental sustainability including use of resources in a way not to harm the environmental benefits of future generations.

Although technological innovation is regarded as an engine of growth, rapid development based on technology is still not a common phenomenon. For Viet Nam, the application of technologies in developing economy and industry as well as addressing social issues and protecting the environment is still limited. At the ceremony, Mr. Ludovico Alcorta, Director of Research Policy and Statistics Division of UNIDO Austria recommended that «Viet Nam should quickly move through each stage of technological development instead of leapfrogging. This can be done by accumulating capital and investment to move up to higher technology ladder steps and high-tech sectors.” Thus, IDR 2016 will be a useful reference document for policy-makers, entrepreneurs and scholars in the country, as it introduces necessary and sufficient conditions for an appropriate process of technological innovation to facilitate and promote sustainable development.

At the launching ceremony, Mr. Patrick Gilabert, UNIDO Representative in Viet Nam said: «UNIDO has a special relation with Viet Nam, that’s why we always present our global IDR reports in Viet Nam.  This IDR 2016 is closely linked with UNIDO’s new mandate, adopted in 2013, to promote an Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development ISID. ISID is in line with almost all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and specifically with SDG No 9, which calls to “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”. SDG 17 on Science, Technology and Innovation is also relevant with UNIDO mandate».

The full IDR 2016 can be downloaded from the link: https://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media_upgrade/Resources/Publications/EBOOK_IDR2016_FULLREPORT.pdf

The summarized IDR 2016 can be downloaded from the link: http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media_upgrade/Resources/Publications/EBOOK_IDR2016_OVERVIEW_ENGLISH.pdf

For more information, please contact: Mr. Ludovico Alcorta, Director of Research Policy and Statistics Division, UNIDO Headquarters, email: A.Alcorta@unido.org