Paper short abstract:

Nations increasingly position economic "catch-up" not only in terms of manufacturing, but also services and digital economies. We explore how industrial policy is evolving to encompass the requirements of the digital economy through analysis of policy in Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand.

Paper long abstract:

With the global expansion of the digital economies and digitalisation, we are seeing changes in the economic ambitions of latecomer economies. No longer do nations position economic "catch-up" solely in terms of manufacturing, they are also looking to grow services and establish digital economies to develop. In this context, there has been growing interest in how industrial policy evolves to encompass the requirements of the digital economy and digitalised industries.

More strategic national digital policy is emerging in latecomer economies. Such policy has been found to align with different aspects of the industrial policy literature. Interventionist policy has been important, for example to reduce structural inequalities emerging from global digital platforms. Policies pushing cross-border openness have also been crucial, to support acceleration of global technology knowledge and learning (Foster & Azmeh 2019).

In this paper, we expand on these early discussions, to more build analytical insights on the evolution of digitally focussed industrial policy. We also look to examine how more interventionist and export-orientated policy might best be sequenced. We do this through examining the contexts of digital policy activity in three latecomer economies: Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand.