The technology gap and the developing countries

Abstract

Recently much more attention has been given to the application of Science and Technology to development in the developing countries. While analysing the role of science and technology in the development of these countries, it is useful to distinguish between “growth” and “development”. The progressive application and development of modern science and technology should be considered much more than a simple accumulation of useful information of know‐how (science) and know‐why (technology). It is well known that 98 % of the world's R and D expenditures are concentrated in the rich countries which have different interests, different problems and seek different solutions than those in the developing countries. As the ability to analyse technical scientific and managerial problems has grown in the rich industrial countries, the poor low income countries have become increasingly dependent on technologies conceived and developed in the rich countries and not suitable for their needs and resource endowments. In the light of this situation, it is suggested that the rich‐developed countries should reorient a substantial part of their expenditures on R and D so that some of the resulting advances in science and technology are directly geared to the problems of the less developed countries as pointed out in the U.N. World Plan of Action for the application of science and technology to development.