Government rhetoric and their R&D expenditure. A score-card for governments' investments into science and future technologies.

Abstract

If you want to harvest in the autumn, you need to sow in spring. This ancient wisdom holds true not only for agriculture, but for all economic activities. When nations turned their focus from agriculture to industry, the definition of ‘sowing’ and ‘harvesting’ changed. The latter is relatively easy to identify: it is the nation's wealth in terms of economic growth, employment level, per capita income, exports, and so on. Such achievements point the way not only to re‐election of the politicians who ensure a rich harvest, but also to the well‐being of all its citizens. Slightly harder to define is the ‘sowing’ part—the public and private investments that guarantee economic growth and high employment in the long term. After the industrial revolution took place, governments needed simply to ensure that the social, political and financial structures were in place to encourage entrepreneurs to start businesses and create new jobs in the emerging industrial sector. Now, at a time of globalization, international corporations move to where they can find the best opportunities in terms of employee salaries and governmental incentives. It follows that robust manufacturing processes are being transferred from their traditional locations in the developed world to areas that offer the best financial projections and the lowest cost structures. As a result, the so‐called advanced economies have to find new ways to maintain their privileged status. The common solution is to focus on new discoveries that bring with them ownership of commercially valuable intellectual property and require a phase of development and manufacturing in a highly skilled environment. Thus, the seeds that need to be sown are now investments, from both industry and government, into science and technology, with the aim of creating well‐paid jobs in the high‐tech sector and new products for an increasingly demanding global market. > It …