70 



achievement of self-sustaining growth requires that the extremes of 

 wealth and poverty which exist in all less developed nations be 

 eliminated. In addition to the accumulation of a sufficient quantity of 

 capital savings and investment, the economic structure of the nation 

 must be diversified so that its products can enter world markets. ^^ 



Other requirements are: the maximum development of the pro- 

 duction resource potential of the nation- — whether industrial or 

 agricultural, or the appropriate admixture of the two; establishment 

 of adequate communications, power and transportation systems; and 

 the recruitment and training of a cadre of skilled manpower — in 

 agriculture and industry, in i3ublic administration and management. 



The experiences of U.S. technical assistance programs have also 

 shoA\Ti that many forms of technology utilized in the industrialized 

 nations cannot be easily assimilated and adopted by the less developed 

 nations without considerable modification to their particular needs 

 and capacities. Many factors make modern technology incompatible 

 ^^ith resources of transitional nations : It costs more than less sophisti- 

 cated techniques, requires much maintenance, and is designed for 

 large-scale production units. In addition, modern technology is 

 capital intensive; it requires large sums of capital plus highly skilled 

 workers, both of which, are scarce in these countries. Labor-intensive 

 production systems are usually more compatible vdth the primitive 

 economic conditions of the less developed nations where there is an 

 abundance of unskilled labor. Yet modern technological efficiency 

 calls for automation and economies of scale. Differences in climate, 

 topogi'aphy, resource potential, level of education, culture, and the 

 value given to a materiahstic way of life, suggest that it may be neces- 

 sary to export (or even to invent) a technology which is appropriate 

 to the industriahzed countries in the early stages of their develop- 

 mental process, such as wooden instead of steel farm implements, 

 hand-powered washing machines, or progression of the farmer from 

 the hoe to the animal-drawn plow instead of to the tractor." These 

 differences also lead to the conclusion that special technologies ap- 

 propriate to the miique circumstances of the less developed country 

 must be developed and diffused. 



In trying to get the point IV program through the Congress, the 

 State Department gave little consideration to these obstacles to 

 the transfer of advanced technologies. Its justification material 

 cited only two sets of limiting factors: (1) the need to supersede the 

 "civil disorder and extreme forms of nationalism," and (2) the long 

 time period required for economic growth to take place.-^ ^lisled 

 by American successes achieved in post World War II reconstruc- 

 tion and recovery programs in Europe, the Department held 



2« Barbara Ward (Lady Jackson) . Technological Change and the World Market. In U.S. Congress. House. 

 Committee on Science and Astronautics. Panel on Science and Technology, Ninth Meeting: Applied Sci- 

 ence and World Economy. Proceedings before the * * * Jan. 23, 24, and 25, 1938. 90th Cong., 1st sess. (No. 

 1) (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 196S), p. 29. 



2' Gerald M. Meier and Robert E. Baldwin. Professors."Technical Assistance. In the United States and 

 the Developing Economies. "Edited with an introduction by Gustav Ranis. (New York, W. W. Norton 

 and Co., Inc., 1964), p. 120. 



28 U.S Department of State. Point 4: Cooperative Program for Aid in the Development of Economically 

 Underdeveloped Areas. Prepared by the Department of State with assistance of an Interdepartmental 

 Advisory Committee on Technical Assistance and the staff of the National Advisory Council. Department 

 of State Publication 3719. (Washington, U.S. Govermnent Printing Office, revised January 1950) , pp. 33-34. 



