Industrial Policies and Strategies, 2: The Netherlands

Wolff, P. de (1980). Industrial Policies and Strategies, 2: The Netherlands. IIASA Collaborative Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: CP-80-033

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Abstract

In the coming years the world will be undergoing a major structural transformation as the size, composition, and geographic distribution of industry changes under the influence of:

-- increases in factor prizes: energy, labor;

-- depletion of resources: minerals, cheap liquid fuels;

-- changes in technology: microelectronics, biotechnology;

-- industrialization of the LDCs.

The already-industrialized nations, whose industrial structure was shaped by relatively inexpensive energy and easy access to resources, will find certain sectors losing competitiveness to newly-industrialized nations with access to similar technologies, and cheaper labor. The newly-industrializing nations will strive to increase their portion of the global industrial pie, while the industrialized nations will compete with each other to preserve their shares. At the same time, population increase and economic development will place new demands both for employment and for goods on the industrial system.

At the national level, this transformation will affect economic growth, employment, regional development, balance of payments, R&D, and many other sensitive constituents of national well-being. For the small economies that have a relatively large foreign trade sector, the transformation can be traumatic. Even the large, autarkic economies will face substantial challenges.

IIASA is now beginning an exploration of the role that it might play in analyzing and improving understanding of the global and national issues arising from this transformation of the international industrial structure. One part of the exploration has been the commissioning of a series of papers by outside specialists.

A central question for all nations in the face of the industrial transformation is: what strategy should be followed to maximize the prospects of national well-being, given the anticipated changes? The second paper in the series addresses this question for a medium-sized nation with a very open economy: The Netherlands. Its author, Dr. Pieter de Wolff, is Chairman of the Dutch Central Committee of Statistics, Vice-Chairman of the Advisory Council for Science Policy of the Netherlands Government, and member of the Social Economic Council of the Netherlands. From 1957 to 1966, he was Director of the Netherlands' Central Planning Bureau.

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