OPPORTUNITIES AND PROPOSED INITIATIVES 



Taking into account the interests and issues just 

 outlined, this panel has identified two areas of 

 opportunity for possible U.S. initiatives: 



1. Building capabilities for creating and using 

 industrial technology 



2. Improving access to technologies of industrialized 

 countries 



These areas and the initiatives related to them are 

 summarized in Table 2. 



Building Capabilities for Creating 

 and Using Industrial Technology 



The initiatives presented here are aimed primarily 

 at strengthening the capability of developing nations 

 to generate and apply their own industrial technology 

 as a way of reducing dependence on imported technology 

 and tailoring technology more fully to local 

 conditions. While many developing nations are actively 

 pursuing programs toward this end, typically through 

 research and development, there is no question that the 

 greatest proportion of investment in industrial 

 research and development still takes place in the 

 developed countries. According to U.N. estimates, no 

 more than about 5 percent of industrial research and 

 development occurs in developing nations. The fact 

 that so much is concentrated in the developed world 

 leads to the possibility that much new technology is 

 not economically or technologically well suited for use 

 in developing nations. 



Any serious proposal to strengthen industrial 

 research and development in the developing nations must 

 consider a caveat. The modern world economy is highly 

 interdependent, especially in the domain of industrial 

 technology, and no one nation is self-sufficient in the 

 creation and use of technology. Indeed, developing 

 nations do not seek self-sufficiency. Rather, they 

 seek the ability to perform a more significant amount 

 of industrial research and development, so that they 

 can create technologies uniquely suited to their own 

 environments and become better able to adopt and adapt 

 technologies from external sources. 



Two basic requirements must be met if a nation is 

 to create industrial technology that will foster the 

 growth of the industrial sector: (1) a supply of 

 trained practitioners of industrial technology, 

 including scientists, engineers, managers, technicians, 

 and a skilled labor force; and (2) a demand for their 



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