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CHAPTER 10COMPETITIVENESS, CONTINUOUSIMPROVEMENT AND LEARNING 110.1 INTRODUCTIONContinued success in enterprise development depends upon acombination of an appropriately skilled workforce, a drive to highervalue-added products, processes and services, access to internationalmarkets and on-going change within the organisation, inaddition to the general economic environment.This chapter discusses these components of competitiveness in thecontext of Ireland’s enterprise policy and deals with trends inindustry, enterprise policy, and key elements of competitiveness,including the provision of a skilled workforce, research anddevelopment, organisational performance and international access.In addition, it reviews important sectors of our economy that requiremore sector specific policies to address their on-going growth anddevelopment, principally agriculture and tourism10.2 THE ROLE OF PUBLIC POLICY IN ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVENESS10.2.1 The Rationale for Industrial PolicyThe Council’s Evolving PerspectiveThe Council’s approach to the role of public policy in economicdevelopment is based on an analysis formulated in a range ofreports since the early 1980s. As noted in Chapter 1, the Council hasformulated its advice on the basis of a number of empiricalobservations and analytical principles concerning the developmentof the Irish economy. These reflect a particular view of Ireland’s1. This Chapter draws in part on material on enterprise policy provided by theDepartment of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Forfás.531