To enhance firm-level competitiveness, industrial and trade policies need to, first, catalyse the advance of technical and managerial know-how by firms, and second, enable them to comply with international standards.
This paper suggests that developing countries should build strong institutional capacity for deploying QMS as an intrinsic management tool among their firms. An easily accessible infrastructure of dedicated institutions to disseminate, educate, and provide training to firms in quality management can help raise overall productivity levels, enabling a nation to manage its resources more efficiently.
This research paper forms part of the E15 Expert Group on ‘Reinvigorating Manufacturing: New Industrial Policy and the Trade System’ brought out jointly by the by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and the World Economic Forum and co-convened with the National School of Development at Peking University, and the Confederation of Indian Industry.