Features
 | Building Science, Technology, and Innovation Capacity for Sustainable Growth & Poverty Reduction.February, 2007 >> STI Global Forum Website |
 | Innovation for Development: The Tokyo International Conference for Africa's Development, the G-8 and Beyond. January 2008 >> More | B-SPAN |
 | Science, Technology, Innovation, and Wealth Creation: Skills & Capacity Building for Development Countries. July, 2007 >> B-SPAN |
An abundant supply of low wage, unskilled labor is no longer a route to rapid growth and national prosperity. In today’s world, characterized by intense global competition and rapid technological change, the key to prosperity is a well-educated, technically skilled workforce producing high value added, knowledge intensive goods and services, employed in private enterprises that have the managerial capacity to find, adapt, and adopt modern, up-to-date technology and sell sophisticated goods and services in global markets.
The phrase, “knowledge intensive activities” is not synonymous with high tech. Assembling computers for export generates high tech exports, but it is a low wage, unskilled, low value added activity that will probably not lead to national prosperity and rising standards of living. On the other hand, fish farming, aquaculture, and tropical flower cultivation all require knowledge intensive production processes, even though they are traditionally classified as low tech activities.
Specializing in the production of knowledge intensive, high value added goods and services, irrespective of whether they are in high tech or low tech sectors, will require a concerted effort to augment the Science, Technology and Innovation capacity of client countries. This capacity involves four critical dimensions:
Education for the Knowledge Economy. Producing knowledge intensive, technologically sophisticated, higher value goods and services is not possible without a trained management cadre and labor force with the appropriate mix of technical and vocational skills. Among other things, this requires (i) scientists with the skills needed to conduct appropriate R&D, (ii) engineers and skilled craftsmen to evaluate technology and adapt it for use in the enterprise, and (iii) skilled technicians who will actually utilize the technology in the production process. Vocational, secondary and tertiary education must all contribute to turning out graduates with the necessary skills. Moreover, since the skills required by today’s labor market may not be the same as those that will be required in the future, a process of life long learning must be built into the education system. And at all levels and life-cycle stages, the education system must work with the private sector to understand and respond to its needs.
Research & Development (R&D): Producing and Acquiring Economically Relevant Knowledge. R&D activities should not place undue emphasis on theoretical, basic research. Nor should they be conducted in an ivory tower, disconnected from the development needs of the economy. Instead, the national R&D effort should focus on helping the private sector utilize and apply scientific and technological knowledge so that even so-called “low tech” activities become more competitive and generate more domestic value added. The R&D effort, in other words, should have a strong emphasis on applied research and engineering.
Technology Acquisition and Diffusion: Using Existing Knowledge to Improve Industrial Competitiveness. Most of the knowledge that developing countries need to boost productivity and value added, in both high tech and traditional sectors, has already been discovered. The problem is that this existing knowledge is not always being employed in World Bank client countries. Therefore, a third, related aspect of capacity building involves enhancing the private sector’s ability to acquire existing technology, improve and adapt it for the particular needs of local enterprises, and incorporate it into local production processes. In other words, this aspect of capacity building should focus on helping the private sector absorb and utilize technology that is already in use elsewhere in the world.
Science & Technology Policy Making Capacity. National policy makers need to have the capacity to understand the challenges and opportunities flowing from the global economy and to devise appropriate policies.
Meeting these challenges will require concerted action by education institutions, R&D institutes, the private sector and the national government. It will also require close links and cooperation between each of these actors.
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