Promoting Higher Productivity through Value-Added Industrial Transformation

The global economy is entering a period in which sustaining growth increasingly depends not only on investment volume, but also on economies' ability to translate investment into higher productivity, stronger productive capabilities, and quality employment. For middle-income economies in particular, expanding capital accumulation and production alone may no longer be sufficient to sustain convergence toward high-income status. The challenge is to ensure that investment supports technological upgrading, innovation, firm-level capability development, and a structural shift toward higher-value and more productive economic activities.

The World Bank Group Institute for Economic Development, the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas of the Republic of Indonesia, and the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), are hosting a side event during the IMF-World Bank Group Spring Meetings 2026 to bring together policymakers, multilateral development institutions, the private sector, and knowledge institutions. The event will provide a platform to examine how private capital and innovation can be translated into productive capabilities, industrial upgrading, higher productivity, and quality jobs. Rather than focusing solely on the amount of capital mobilized, the discussion will explore the policy, financing, institutional, and private-sector conditions required to maximize the development impact of investment and support middle-income economies in their transition toward higher-value and higher-income activities.

• Agenda