A nation’s industrial policy is the official strategic initiative of the government to facilitate the growth and development of all or specific sectors of the nation’s economy; usually the manufacturing. It refers to “any type of selective intervention or government policy that attempts to alter the structure of production toward sectors that are expected to offer better prospects for economic growth than would occur in the absence of such intervention”. The government takes measures aimed at improving the competitiveness and capabilities of domestic firms and promoting structural transformation. Import Tariffs, closed borders, export promotion etc. are examples of industrial policies used by governments.
Applying new, useful ideas in creating value is simply termed innovation. While creativity is the ability to generate the new and useful idea, innovation is all about the applicability of the idea. An innovative idea should be reproducible at an affordable cost while serving relevant needs. It requires strategic use of knowledge, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit to extract superior or unique qualities from available resources, covering all mechanisms through which the creative ideas are transformed into useful products or services .
The application of ideas that are novel and useful is simply termed innovation. Creativity, the ability to generate novel and useful ideas, is the seed of innovation but unless it’s applied and scaled it’s still just an idea.
In order to achieve economic prosperity in a country/region by boosting its exports, groups of interrelated industries are developed. These interrelated industries are called Industrial Clusters. It is comprised of the whole value chain of a widely specialized industry spanning manufacturers to finished goods, as well as supporting services and specialized infrastructure. Cluster industries are physically converged and linked by the movement of goods or services within the cluster which are greater than the movement that links them to the rest of the economy outside the cluster. Nnewi Automotive Component Industrial Cluster in Anambra State is an example of an industrial cluster in Nigeria.
Value chain development (VCD) plays a central role in development programming primarily directed at inducing economic activity. In the private sector, VCD, relates to the method which considers a commodity as the subject for assessment. Such commodity is usually an agricultural product. In the use of this method, the entire route of the selected commodity is assessed, starting from the farm inputs through cultivation, harvesting, processing, logistics, to distribution to final consumers. This method of assessment enables its users to determine strategies that will aid farmers and vendors in fulfilling the demands of the market – in more pro-poor ways.