The 2014 Economic Report on Africa builds on the previous year’s report, which made the case for commodity-based industrialization. It calls on the continent to refocus its economic development strategies on industrial-ization, particularly on the means for formulating and implementing efective industrial policy. In the past, most African countries pursued industrial policy with mixed results. It is now time to reacknowledge that state support is vital to address market failures and spur industrialization—and to institutionalize industrial policy in national and regional development strategies at the highest levels of government. Yet the state’s role is different from a direct producer of goods.