Developing industry

Creating large scale machine and electronics technology based production in an economy. Industrialization results in the predominance of manufactured goods determining the economy. The process can begin with light industry, like textiles, and as this expands then transfering capital toward heavy or high technology industry. Some nations, such as the former USSR, have begun with heavy industry; others, like Japan, with simultaneous development of heavy and light industry. The availability of resources, technology, labour, capital, skilled workers and managerial capacity determine the rate and type of industrialization. The purpose and social situation of industrialization can allow provide constraints on it.

The industrialization process began with the industrial revolution in the UK, spreading to continental Europe and North America. However the pattern of industrial activity has undergone important shifts in recent decades. Heavy industry is expanding rapidly in the developing Asian and South American economies, while expansion of the industrial base in Europe, the United States and Japan is directed more to high technology production processes and service-oriented activities.