Despite the rise of Western investment, globalization has brought technological advances enough to lift the least developed countries from poverty.
| The Nation Friday August 10, 2007 |
Maguy Daypar
science, technology and innovation are not a luxury but a necessity for the least developed countries (LDCs). But the latest annual report on the States, published on Thursday 19 July by the Conference of the United Nations (UN) on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), finds that openness to international trade has triggered technological advances needed to out of poverty. According to UNCTAD
is precisely in the field of knowledge, a key element of growth competitiveness and the conquest of world markets, that these fifty-one thirty LDCs are in Africa, remain the most vulnerable. "If LDCs stand aloof from this development will be increasingly marginalized in the global economy, where competition depends increasingly on knowledge rather than the aesthetic advantages derived from natural resources," says Habib Ouane, director of UN section on LDCs.
Imports of machinery or new materials that will allow local companies to modernize their production systems, have had a slowdown during the past 25 years. Between 2000 and 2005, the WFP imported the equivalent of just $ 18 in durable goods per capita, against $ 207 for other developing countries. Despite the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI), these countries remain anchored in the production of war with low added value that require unskilled labor. Between 2000 and 2005, FDI in poor countries were three times higher than during the previous ten years, yet not above one percent of global flows. Brain drain
addition, investments are still not very diversified in geographical terms: Angola, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan, oil producers, concentrated only among themselves over half of FDI. The European and American transnational companies established in these countries operate "as a few enclaves and establish links with local businesses," said the report . Characterized by a strong capital intensity, mining activities in Africa of these foreign branches, exporting unprocessed raw materials, have a weak impact on employment.
As regards the increase of FDI in the apparel sector in Asia is accompanied by employment growth and development of exports without technological capabilities of enterprises. "The lack of overlap in the national economy makes the clothing tax in LDCs is the existence of preferential access to markets" , states the UN agency, noting that they can disappear overnight .
The authors are also concerned about the acceleration of brain drain. The migration of the graduate workforce in these countries is the more damaging because the skilled human capital resources are scarce. The report makes clear that in LDCs is 94.3 researchers per million people, against 313 in developing countries and 3,728 in rich countries.
L to UNCTAD acknowledges that in the context of structural adjustment programs established by the funding partners and designed to preserve macroeconomic stability, LDCs have not been able to negotiate more flexible, in order to preserve their potential for creativity. Indeed, local governments do not spend more than 0.3% of its GDP in research and development, against 0.8% in developing countries and 2.4% in rich countries.
However, the responsibilities are shared. Developed countries have failed to provide prescriptions for LDCs to ensure the success of its own growth Ouane regrets. In the last 25 years, 3.9% of World Bank loans were intended for scientific and technological projects for middle-income countries like Indonesia and Mexico. Among the poorest, Bangladesh could only benefit.
Le Monde The New York Times Syndicate
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