LCDs in tight spot unless their technology gap tightens

By Simegnish Yekoye

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Least Developed Countries (LCDs) will not be able to catch up with the rest of the world unless they acquire knowledge and technology, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) report warned yesterday, Thursday July 19, 2007.

UNCTAD’s report subtitled ‘knowledge, technological learning and innovation for development’ also underlined that the phenomenon has become a major loss for LCDs with the recommendation that developed countries hire people from LCDs on a temporary basis to make sure they return to their country.
The report that was launched at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) stresses LDCs are not climbing the economic and technological ladder and their economies remain locked into low value-added commodity production and low-skill manufacturing.

“Of course we understand the LDCs have limited capacities and we can’t expect them to be on the frontier at the international level,” says Hakim Ben Hammouda, director of Trade, Finance and Development (TFED) division under ECA, “but at some point there is a need for LDCs to catch up.”
Hammouda also said experts trained in LDC countries with limited resources go to developed countries for PhD studies or further training and the majority of them never come back. “It is therefore recommended to have a temporary hiring system and brain circulation among countries,” he said.

The report is basically structured in a way that would give more analytical detail to looking at why science and technology are important in the poorest countries and looks into actual policies implemented in LDCs through science and technology. It also warns that the world’s 50 poorest nations will not be able to achieve the sustained economic growth necessary to reduce poverty without new policies on technology.
“Science and technology is key and having new policies on science and technology for LDCs will help them to increase productivity and the quality standard of their products,” says Hammouda.

According to the report, knowledge is becoming increasingly important in global production and competition but this is precisely where the LDCs are at their weakest. Their domestic firms and farms have low technological capabilities, skills are underdeveloped, and the domestic institutions which could support technology acquisition and diffusion are lacking or ineffective, says the report.

The report at an international level also puts emphasis on aid and highlights the need to increase aid making sure it is partly aimed at the technological development of these countries so that they can deal with the technological gap. It also adds that aid should be increased to strengthen the technological capabilities of domestic firms engaged in industry and services.
It is noted some 767 million people live in LDCs and 70% of the labor force works in agriculture. Grinding rural poverty is mostly due to low levels of agricultural productivity as well as declining farm sizes, according to the report, making science based agricultural development urgent for LDCs.