The Industrial Development Report (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.