This section looks at the pillars of competitiveness and the so-called collaborative matrix. There are five major foundational factors of competitiveness:

1. Regulatory and tax environment. This is about the investment climate, the rules and regulations. How much does it cost to do things? How much do you have to pay to be there? What are the services you get?
2. Infrastructure is essential. For a factory to run, you need e.g. roads that are accessible to trucks, water supply, power supply (grid or generator), waste disposal and waste treatment, water drainage, water treatment system.
3. Access to finance. Without finance, companies are unable to invest and unable to grow. Often locations have no proper access to banking and financing means as the banking network is not well developed. The access to finance needs to be resolved by developing the financial market structure and the financial systems.
4. Skilled and trained labor. The quality of skills and labor is very important and not an easy thing to solve. Here we also refer to education from primary, secondary through tertiary level. This is the base you need to develop high-level skills.
5. Access to new technologies and R&D. Does the sector have access to new research and technology and is it able to be one step ahead of others? Is there technology to implement new ideas?
In addition to the five pillars of competitions, when you have a PPD that focuses on a sector, the dialogue process can define different actions:
1. Actions that are fully implemented by the public sector;
2. Actions that involve both the public and private sector such as PPPs;
3. Actions that need to be implemented by the private sector.

If you combine the five pillars of competitiveness with the three categories of action, you will have a matrix that depicts the real basis of a sector-specific PPD. This is also called an industry level, collaborative action matrix.