Agenda for Industrial Development

  Stretching the thread from my last article, where I discussed the importance of industrial policy and reflected on the draft National Industrial Policy (NIP) being developed by the Ministry of Industries and Production, this piece takes a broader view — how to anchor industrial policy in the broader economic transformation agenda of Pakistan. I argue that industrial policy—when extended beyond manufacturing—becomes the state economy-wide transformation strategy, targeting productivity, capabilities, and competitiveness across the tradable sectors. While manufacturing remains central to jobs, learning, scale, and much of innovation, transformation truly succeeds when policy also develops tradable services (IT, logistics, finance), agriculture and agro-processing, and resource-based value chains. This broader scope, I suggest, is best achieved through what I call the 3P Model—a framework built around people, process, and products. It provides a conceptual underpinning for moder...

  The debate on industrial policy has once again resurfaced in Pakistan’s official circles — and for good reason. It is a global conversation, and Pakistan cannot remain an exception. Some may say industrial policy is “back on stage”; in truth, it never fully disappeared. Even in the most neoliberal settings — the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union — governments continued to practice it, albeit under different labels. Far from being a relic of the past, today’s initiatives such as the CHIPS & Science Act in the USA (2022), the European Chips Act (2023), and the UK’s Steel Industry Act (2025) are just a few examples of how governments still turn to industrial policy openly when it matters. The debate was further popularized by Mariana Mazzucato’s influential book “The Entrepreneurial State”, which argues that patient, upfront public investment is indispensable for kick-starting innovation and industrial development. Markets are good at scaling and commer...