Focused Reindustrialisation As Post-Transition Economy Transformational Strategy

In a quest for a cheaper labour in the last fifth of the last century, relocation of production capacities in order to reduce the cost has produced rapid deindustrialization of western economic and industrial blocs, with the United States and Western European countries leading the process. Having entered into the 4th Industrial Revolution this trend started to change, and manufacturing is once again being widely considered as the backbone of national economic development. On the other hand, various global crises are hitting hard national economies thus exposing their vulnerability and lack of resilience. This is accentuated especially with smaller post-transition economies, where service represents a strong component of the national economic ecosystem. The question arises, which form of national strategic positioning, in the appropriate conjuncture, is appropriate as a response to the challenges of a turbulent and uncertain global economic and technological race accompanied with crisis hits? By using the Mission-Oriented Strategy model, applied on the example of the Republic of Croatia, this paper analyses and suggests development directions for sustainable accelerated transformation of the national economy by applying the smart industries concept as a leading strategic option. The paper concludes that the adoption and implementation of focused reindustralisation strategies based on the smart industries concepts may represent one of the key factors of success in enhancing national economy competitiveness.