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Yugoslavia Industry
After World War II, Yugoslav development policy emphasized
growth in the industrial sector. All means of production were
completely nationalized and remained so through 1990. The high
rate of investment in industry in the First Five-Year Plan
followed the slogan "Heavy Industry at Any Cost." The cost was a
serious imbalance in economic development that the Yugoslav
government was still trying to rectify in 1990
(see
fig. 9).
Postwar Policy
Between 1949 and the late 1970s, the fastest growing
industrial branches were oil and gas extraction and refining and
manufacture of machinery for electric power generation, transport
equipment, chemicals, and electric power. These branches received
high priority because their production levels were very low at
the end of World War II. Other priority branches that were
already better developed in the late 1940s--such as mining of
coal and ferrous and nonferrous metals--expanded output
significantly, but growth rates were considerably lower than
those of the top-priority industries. Several nonpriority
branches, such as furniture, paper, raw materials for
construction, and the traditional food and beverage industries,
expanded faster than the overall industrial average (see
table 13, Appendix).
After the war, industry was concentrated in the traditional
manufacturing regions of northern Yugoslavia. Beginning in 1961,
industrial policy stressed locating new manufacturing facilities
closer to sources of raw materials
(see
fig. 10). This meant
greater national investment in the underdeveloped economies of
Montenegro and Macedonia, which in turn caused discontent in
Slovenia and Croatia, the much richer northern republics required
to contribute large shares to the national investment program
(see Regional Disparities
, this ch.).
The 1976-80 plan promoted primary production: development in
all energy-producing sectors accelerated, and domestic oil and
gas exploration was intensified to reduce Yugoslavia's dependence
on imported fuels and minimize the effect of the oil crises of
the 1970s. This step was also a prerequisite for further growth
in industries with high energy consumption such as iron and
steel, nonferrous metallurgy, and chemicals. In the late 1970s, a
renewed commitment to self-sufficiency in ferrous and nonferrous
metallurgy was based on exploitation and processing of domestic
raw materials. Greater attention also went to machine building
industries that produced capital equipment necessary for the
development of heavy industry.
The Sixth Five-Year Plan (1981-85) continued the industrial
strategy of the previous plan. Priority industries for investment
were metallurgy, base chemicals, and machinery. At the same time,
the plan limited expansion of production facilities in other
manufacturing industries.
Data as of December 1990
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