By Wai Phyo Myint
An official of the World Bank emphasized the need for science and technology in poor countries to get rid of the poverty line and to bring economic growth at the lecture given at the Green Mountain College on April 1.
Alfred Watkins, a science and technology coordinator for the World Bank gave a lecture entitled ‘Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Capacity Building in Developing Countries’ as part of the college’s economic forum.
Watkins said that the developing countries have to recognize the need of building science, technology innovation capacity.
“Local people (from developing countries) don’t have the capacity to implement policies to solve the problems they are facing,” Watkins said.
“By building local STI capacity, developing countries can not only better absorb and adapt foreign technologies, but also develop local solutions to local problems,” Watkins said.
Before the stages of producing and science and research capacity, the countries are required to attain basic infrastructure: education and human resource development.
He said that technical and vocational schools are required in low and middle income countries to produce skilled labor forces for the economic growth.
In his lecture, Watkins discussed the economic growth of the East Asian countries, such as China, South Korea, and Singapore, compared to some Latin countries.
He said that the East Asian countries worked the capacity building by making investments in the education sector to produce skilled labor, who later adapted foreign technology, and gained the economic growth faster by using their labor in foreign investment business firms than the Latin countries who financed scientific research institutions which were unable to apply in private business firms for the economic growth.
Watkins said that governments in developing countries must have plans to transform into a knowledge-based economy, through the stages adopting foreign technology to producing new generation of technology.
“If we look at examples of Malaysia and Mexico, we see they are dying in economy because their economy was based on supplying labor and they no longer compare to the cheaper labor market in China,” Watkins said.
To improve products and service to compete in the global market, Watkins insisted that the science, technology and innovation capacity is fundamental.
The World Bank has been helping developing countries to implement programs for science and technology capacity building.
Mr Watkins said that the World Bank was working with the government of Rwanda for the country’s STI project by providing technical assistance and financial grants.
Aftermath of the genocide, Rwanda has come out as a democratic country and has reached political and social stability with a steady GDP growth.
However, Watkins said in Rwanda, the per capital income is just $ 0.71 a day. And it has yet to achieve the Millennia goal which is to lift people about $ 1 a day poverty line, by increasing per capital income by 40 percent.
Watkins said that the World Bank’s STI capacity project would be an answer to the second challenge Rwanda today is facing.
