From protection to capability
The credibility of industrial policy now rests on capability building: skills, standards, infrastructure and supplier ecosystems rather than protection.
Design for firm behaviour
Instruments work when they change what a firm actually does. That requires understanding decision economics at firm level — margins, financing constraints and customer requirements.
Governance decides outcomes
Clear mandates, transparent selection, and monitoring tied to results separate effective programmes from expensive ones.
Measurement as discipline
Results frameworks should track intermediate capability indicators, not only jobs and investment totals, so that course correction is possible mid-programme.