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About this talk

This CIMR debate is organised around the themes of the recent book by Prof. Fadil Sahiti, Catching Up in the Digital Age: Capabilities, Governance, and Industrial Policy in Transitional Europe. The event examines the central challenge of development in the digital era, namely how latecomer economies can achieve sustainable economic transformation under conditions of structural constraint, institutional fragility, and rapid technological change. The book argues that catching up is not simply a matter of adopting new technologies. Rather, it is a cumulative process of building and aligning multiple capabilities, including technological, institutional, organisational, and transformative capabilities. These capabilities depend on governance systems that enable societies to learn, coordinate, and adapt in contexts characterised by uncertainty and fragmentation. The debate will focus on transitional European economies, with particular attention to the Western Balkans. Drawing on empirical evidence from Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia, the discussion highlights how capability formation often emerges through fragmented and hybrid governance arrangements rather than through idealised institutional models. A central contribution of the book is the concept of the Developmental Network State. This framework reconceptualises governance as a dynamic and learning-oriented capability. It emphasises adaptive, experimental, and network-based forms of coordination that connect public institutions, firms, and transnational actors in processes of collective learning and structural transformation. The event will address several key questions: How can latecomer economies build capabilities in the context of digital transformation? What forms of industrial policy are feasible under conditions of weak institutional capacity and donor dependence? How can governance systems evolve to support long-term learning, coordination, and upgrading? By bringing together leading scholars in innovation, industrial policy, and development, the debate aims to bridge theory and practice and contribute to contemporary discussions on governing economic transformation in the digital age.

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