The vigour of global economic expansion has been slowly diminishing in recent years. For many developing countries and economies in transition, per capita income has continued to fall, and poverty remains the single most important concern. Poverty eradication and the revitalization of worldeconomic and industrial growth therefore require a renewed commitment and sense of urgency from policy planners. Industrial Development Global Report 1997 addresses the challenge by focusing on the long-term dynamics of investment and economic growth. It thus emphasizes, as its central message,the crucial importance of economic growth, for which investment is a necessary condition. Part 1 of Global Report 1997 addresses the issues and challenges facing developing countries and economies in transition in their efforts to achieve the levels of investment required to ensure high economic growth. The role of industrial investment is examined from the perspective of globalindustrial change in different regions. The nexus between growth and investment is considered, the factors influencing the levels and efficiency of investment are highlighted and investment and manufacturing trends between 1970 and 1995 are analysed. The links between savings, investment andeconomic growth are investigated to determine the means of financing capital investment at the enterprise level and to find solutions to the problems faced by microenterprises and small enterprises in their efforts to expand. A special feature of Global Report 1997 is the prominence given togovernment policies as an instrument for the promotion of investment, with particular emphasis on the need to tailor such policies to global and national conditions. Part 2 of the Report presents a statistical annex on industrial indicators for 178 countries and territories around the world.

Since 1984 the United Nations Industrial Development Organization has published an annual Global Report which has established a solid reputation among academics and policy-makers.The 1995 Global Report is shorter and more focused. Part I contains an analytical survey of the current world industrial economy. This is written by Lord Meghnad Desai of the London School of Economics, and, in addition to providing a general overview, it focuses on four themes: industrializationin developing countries. Part II contains ten regional surveys: Japan, North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Latin America and the Caribbean, East and Southeast Asia, the Indian sub-continent, North Africa and Western Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and China.The statistical appendices provide industrial data for over 150 countries.The report has been more sharply focused and reduced in length by dropping the section on individual industries.

This is the twentieth in the annual series assessing major development issues. The report is devoted to the role and effectiveness of the state:what it should do, how it should do it, and how it can improve in a rapidly changing world. Governments with both centrally-planned and mixed economies are shrinking their market role because of failed state interventions. This report takes an opposite stance:that state's role in the institutional environment underlying the economy, that is, its ability to enforce a rule of law to underpin transactions, is vital to making government contribute more effectively to development. It argues against reducing government to a minimalist state, explaining that development requires an effective state that plays a facilitator role in encouraging and complementing the activities of private businesses and individuals. The report presents a state reform framework strategy:First, focus the state's activities to match its capabilities; and second, look for ways to improve the state's capability by re-invigorating public institutions. Successful and unsuccessful examples of states and state reform provide illustrations.

The Industrial Development Report is intended to build on development policy experience and contribute to a refinement of the international development agenda. The Report pays special attention to current needs and capabilities in the developing countries in general, and the least developed among them in particular. The 2004 edition addresses the challenges faced by Sub-Saharan African countries in furthering their efforts towards poverty reduction and reaching the Millennium Development Goals.