ROLE OF GOVERNMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER STRESSED BY REPUBLIC OF KOREA IN ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE

17 October 1997

Press Release
GA/EF/2767

ROLE OF GOVERNMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER STRESSED BY REPUBLIC OF KOREA IN ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE

19971017 Organization's Reform Process Must Correct Neglect towards UN Agencies in Science and Technology Field

Although technology transfer was primarily a private sector business, as developed countries often stated, governments did have a role to play in technology transfer promotion, the representative of the Republic of Korea told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this morning during its consideration of science and technology for development.

Governments would find it a lot easier to transfer their own technologies if some multilateral mechanism existed through which other governments would do the same, he said. He cited statistics according to which government funding accounted for an average of 36 per cent of total national research and development spending among countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and comprised 39 per cent in the European Union and the United States. His Government was currently studying the potential of a mutually beneficial sharing of government- sponsored technologies among developed and developing countries, he added.

Speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, the representative of the United Republic of Tanzania said successful strategies for sustainable development must include the development and transfer of environmentally sound technologies. The international community should support regional and subregional cooperation initiatives among developing countries, including economic and technical cooperation and the promotion of technology centres.

Science and technology was the key to the resolution of many major problems facing mankind, including disease, poverty, resource use and the degradation of the environment, the representative of China said. Thus, it was distressing to note that United Nations agencies in the field of science and technology had been weakened. She expressed the hope that in the course of the Organization's reform, the tendency of giving priority to peacekeeping while neglecting development and science and technology would be corrected.

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A representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said a World Science Conference would be convened in 1999, on a date and venue yet to be determined, through which UNESCO and the International Council of Scientific Unions would, among other issues, address the challenges for the next century, particularly those concerning the applications of science to development, the rational use of natural resources and environmental protection.

In introductory remarks, a representative of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said it was imperative for the international community to urgently consider how recent technological advances could be applied as tools for development and to integrate the developing countries into the international economic system.

Statements were also made by the representatives of the Russian Federation, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Ukraine, Iran and Israel.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Monday, 20 October, to begin consideration of operational activities for development.

Committee Work Programme

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this morning to begin consideration of science and technology for development.

A report of the Secretary-General (document A/52/320) before the Committee, covers the activities of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development and its supporting secretariat, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It makes a number of recommendations in the areas of information and communications technologies; science, technology and innovation policy reviews; gender, science and technology; and the formulation of a common vision regarding the future contribution of science and technology.

In the period under review, the Commission considered the report and recommendations of its working group on information and communications technology and called for a number of interrelated measures, including the following:

-- Each developing country and country with an economy in transition should establish a national information and communications technology strategy;

-- Countries should prepare a report on their information and communications technology strategies for the next session of the Commission in 1999 to facilitate the exchange of experience among them at the international and regional levels;

-- Relevant bodies of the United Nations system should assess their capability to provide assistance and promote cooperation in the area of information and communications technology and suggest areas in which they are best able to assist developing countries and countries with economies in transition in the design and implementation of their national strategies; and

-- UNCTAD, as the secretariat of the Commission, should synthesize the results of such assessments and hold, within existing resources, an inter- agency meeting in cooperation with the Commission to review the synthesis.

In addition, the report goes on, the Commission also identified four major themes as the basis on which to formulate a common vision for the future contribution of science and technology to development, as follows:

-- Concrete impact of science and technology on development, generic and sectoral policies;

-- Capacity-building in science and technology, including aspects relating to conceptualization, experiences, management and the examination of new opportunities;

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-- Interaction of private enterprises, governments, academic institutions and civil society groups with science and technology for development; and

-- Assessment of international cooperation networks and the work of organizations active in the field of science and technology.

The report also stresses that the ability of a country to sustain rapid economic growth is in the long run, highly dependent on the effectiveness with which its institutions and policies support the technological transformation of its enterprises.

Statements

SUSAN BRANDWYN, Economic Affairs Officer, New York Office of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said in introductory remarks that it was imperative that the international community urgently consider how recent technological advances could best be applied as tools for development and to strengthen the integration of developing countries into the international economic system. There was a potential danger that the structurally weak economies of the world might not reap the benefits from rapid technological advances, trade liberalization and globalization.

Some developing countries, especially the least developed countries, lacked the resource base and technological capability to take advantage of the benefits offered by the new international environment, she said. The information revolution was a reality whose effects had become inescapable even for small and low-income economies. All countries must deal with the challenges of access to and effective application of the new technologies. For the United Nations, the critical question was what could be done to facilitate access to the new information and communications technologies by developing countries and countries in transition and make those technologies work for development.

MARWA KISIRI (United Republic of Tanzania), speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said science and technology played a catalytic role in the efforts of developing countries to improve the quality of life of their people, as well as to achieve sustained economic growth and development. It was important to strengthen and intensify international cooperation in the field of science and technology for development. That was essential in order to enhance indigenous capacity- building in developing countries and to promote, facilitate and finance the access to, and the transfer of, environmentally sound technologies and corresponding knowledge to those countries.

Adequate financial resources, on a continuous and assured basis, should be accorded to developing countries to foster their development in science and technology, he said. Those countries should also have access to new

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technologies without obstacles, such as export restrictions on new technology imposed under various pretexts. It was imperative to address such an exclusion in the development of developing countries. Science and technology for development should remain one of the priority issues on the agenda of the United Nations. The Organization should play a central role in the promotion of cooperation in science and technology and in the enhancement of support and assistance to developing countries in their efforts on that front.

The development and transfer of environmentally sound technologies were essential components of a successful strategy for sustainable development, he said. And external assistance for the promotion of technology centres in developing countries had an important role to play in that process. The Group of 77 and China emphasized that there was an urgent need for international support to regional and subregional cooperation initiatives involving developing countries, including through the economic and technical cooperation among developing countries (ECDC/TCDC) modality, as a means of expanding not only transfer of technology but trade and investment among those countries.

NIKOLAI TCHOULKOV (Russian Federation) said in the future the United Nations should play an ever-increasing role in the area of science and technology for development, particularly in the establishment and operation of a "global information infrastructure", which included the system of virtual laboratories, tele-medicine and electronic trade system. The Organization should also deal with such research problems as the degradation of the environmental system, global climate change and the development of a new generation of environmentally safe technologies in the field of energy, power saving and transport.

He said his Government supported the decision of the third session of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, that the focus of its work in 1997-1999 would be the theme "Science and technology partnerships and networking for national capacity-building", with particular emphasis on biotechnology and sustainable energy systems. It should also cover environmentally safe transport in the context of efforts to lower the level of global emissions of greenhouse gases. That issue could become particularly important after the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Kyoto in December.

The Russian Federation supported the Commission's proposal that it should remain within the structure of the Economic and Social Council, he said. His Government also considered it important to improve the efficiency of the Commission's activities which could be accomplished through specifying the priorities of its work.

MESSIE AMOAH (Ghana) said the progress of developing countries depended, to a large extent, on their access to technology and their indigenous capacity to develop it. Many of those countries were unable to participate in or contribute to the rapid advances in science and technology because of

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inadequate capacities and capabilities, and the lack of financial resources to acquire them. For those countries, assistance was acquired in the training of sustainable manpower, adaptive and innovative research and capacity-building of institutions and infrastructures to assist their efforts to apply science and technology to speed up the development process. It was also necessary to develop the capacities of developing countries to participate in, and benefit from, the rapid advances in information technology. Due to the low level of technological capability and personnel in that field, further assistance was needed to promote the development of information and communications technology.

The greatest challenge facing humanity was ensuring that the unprecedented prosperity and technological advances were used to eradicate all social ills, such as poverty, disease and illiteracy, and to provide social and economic development for all, she said. Every effort should be made to promote and facilitate the access to and transfer, adaption and development of environmentally sound and economically viable technology, on concessional and preferential terms, to developing countries. The United Nations should ensure that capacity-building in science and technology in developing countries was made a priority issue on its agenda. The Organization should also assist in the mobilization of increased financial assistance to develop science and technology research and development capacities in developing countries.

LUIZ TUPY CALDAS DE MOURA (Brazil) said access and transfer of technology to developing countries on favourable terms should be promoted by the international community. For the attainment and for the enhancement of their endogenous capabilities in research and development, developing countries relied on increased international cooperation. The United Nations must mobilize resources, sharing of information and experiences especially through economic and technical cooperation and transfer of technology.

He called for a genuine partnership between the public and private sectors and for their effective cooperation in developing and developed countries. Governments had an important role to play mainly through regulatory measures and fiscal incentives for investments in research and development and that role must be reinforced through international cooperation. The creation of an enabling environment must be pursued at the national and international levels both by technology recipients and technology suppliers.

MARGARET ALVA (India) said issues of access to and the terms of access to technology, particularly state-of-the-art technology, were among the crucial factors in determining the pace of development. Her Government's efforts in the sphere of science and technology sought to cover all the basic areas of development, particularly to overcome the constraints of basic resources, such as land, water, mineral and energy sources through productivity-raising innovations. The focus of those efforts were directed at -- improving the quality of science and technology education and training

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at all levels; ensuring that research was carried out by and within the production and service sectors through fiscal incentives; accelerating the process of commercialization of research to induce better links between research and industry; encouraging research and innovation in the techniques of traditional occupations; and giving priority to implementation of programmes in the socio-economic sector which had the most direct impact on the people.

The efforts of her Government clearly needed to be complemented by international regulations that took into account the need for access to a broad spectrum of state-of-the-art technology, she said. Developing countries increasingly faced obstacles in accessing technologies, as export restrictions on technology were being put in place by "exclusive clubs of technology owners". It was imperative to effectively address such exclusion and technology denial regimes and measures, because access to technology on reasonable terms determined whether countries could take advantage of the opportunities that globalization offered. There was also a growing recognition that discussion of the "terms and access" issues needed to be effectively broadened to include skills, know-how and related organization and institutional arrangements.

DAVID A. PRENDERGAST (Jamaica) said attempts by developing countries to strengthen their technological capacities and accelerate their technological transformation was occurring in the context of harsh economic realities which included debt and other development problems and increased poverty levels. Jamaica believed that the process of building comparative advantage was based on the systemic application of science and technical know-how and information technology were essential elements in strategies for applying science and technology.

He said information technology offered a range of possibilities to improve production, education, services, legislation and enforcement as well as ways to maintain and improve contact. Developing countries were proportionately far more dependent on external sources for new technical knowledge. The market for technology was imperfect. Access to technological know-how was governed by industrial property rights. Even without those limitations, acquisition of technology required securing information on the sources of those technologies, possession of the skills to assess the appropriateness of those technologies and negotiation of the best possible terms and conditions for acquiring them. Much could be gained through international cooperation.

SERHIY REVA (Ukraine) said the boom in information technologies had had a profound impact on the world economy and had broadened perspectives for solving acute social and ecological problems. The development of national scientific and technological potential was vital to the real integration of developing countries into the world economy and for increasing their competitiveness. Bridging the existing gap between countries able to generate

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and utilize new scientific ideas and modern technologies and technologically disadvantaged ones remained one of the principal challenges for international scientific and technological cooperation as the world economy became increasingly globalized. Drawing attention to the work of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development in the area of conversion of military industry, he said it would be useful to study the international experience in the field of military technologies with a view to applying them to create a global information network. That could be undertaken in cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. Such cooperation had a special significance in view of Ukraine's commitment to decommissioning the Chernobyl nuclear power plant by the year 2000 and ensuring ecological safety. DONG GUILAN (China) said in the past two years the Commission on Science and Technology for Development had done much useful work for Member States, especially the developing countries. Her Government fully supported the Commission in making "Science and Technology Partnerships and Networking for National Capacity-building" a substantive theme during the intersessional period of 1997-1999. The Commission should continue to play an important role in enhancing the decision-making capability of the developing countries in science and technology. It should also make sure that findings of its research projects were better applied and disseminated. China hoped that the United Nations would give due support to the Commission, including necessary financial support, so that its role would be given full play. Science and technology was the key to the resolution of many major problems facing mankind, including disease, poverty, resource use and the degradation of the environment, she said. Yet such an important question as science and technology for development had not been given the importance it deserved in the United Nations system. It was distressing to note that agencies in the field of science and technology had been weakened. Her Government hoped that in the course of reform in the United Nations the tendency of giving priority to peacekeeping while neglecting development and science and technology would be corrected through concrete actions aimed at strengthening the work in science and technology for development. ALFATIH HAMAD, a representative of UNESCO, said earlier this year the Director-General of UNESCO informed the Secretary-General that a World Science Conference would be convened in 1999, on a date and at a venue yet to be determined. Through the conference, UNESCO and the International Council of Scientific Unions aimed at drawing up a guiding balance sheet of the main achievements of science, their implications on society and development and the outcome of international scientific cooperation. The Conference would also address the challenges for the next century, particularly those concerning the applications of science to development, the rational use of natural resources and environmental protection.

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While the proposed World Science Conference would primarily deal with natural science and their impact on society, he said the social and human sciences would be closely associated in addressing the social implications of overall scientific and technological progress, the relationship between science and development and the ethical issues raised by the implementation of scientific research in specific areas. The Conference would involve policy- makers, scientists and representatives of society in all its deliberations. The main outcome of the Conference would be a worldwide innovative and pragmatic programme of action which would foster partnerships in science and the use of science for development and the environment. MOHAMMAD-ALI ZARIE-ZARE (Iran) said the current and future critical challenge facing developing countries lay in the creation and initiation of mechanisms for facilitating access to and application of information and communication technologies and the ability to exploit their development potentialities. The working group on information and communication technologies had correctly concluded that although the costs of building a national information infrastructure was high, the cost of not doing so would certainly be much higher. Satisfactory implementation of the provisions of the instruments adopted at recent international conferences required, among other things, the transfer of technology from developed countries to developing ones, he said. It was unfortunate that the various commitments had not be fulfilled in that area. It was equally unfortunate that developing countries did not have the capacity to initiate such technologies and that their science and technology institutions were, for the most part, fragmented, uncoordinated, and poorly adapted to meet needs. In addition, the lack of resources constrained the ability of developing countries to support such institutions sufficiently. International cooperation in the field of science and technology for development could improve the technological capacity-building of developing countries in a complementary manner, he said. The United Nations system was the main forum for promoting such cooperation through its intergovernmental machinery, particularly through the Commission on Science and Technology for Development and UNCTAD. The Vienna Programme of Action on Science and Technology for Development, as well as all other relevant resolutions, should be implemented faithfully. ARIEL KEREM (Israel) said well directed research guided by wisdom and experience could improve the human lot. Deprivation of man's most basic needs was a cause for strife and conflict. Satisfaction of human wants relieved basic needs, released energy for more widespread endeavour and opened a brighter and more satisfying future for humankind. Israel had always placed a premium on education and the search for knowledge. Rigorous discussion and intellectual exploration allied with common sense had been central to Israel's historical and religious experience. Their application in the building of a modern society competing for room in the market place was an essential element in the struggle for economic existence.

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Reviewing his country's experience and programmes, he said forming alliances with other countries in research and development had been important. Israel had research and development agreements with a number of countries. While government had a vital role in providing encouragement and assistance, particularly in financial start-up process, the private sector must be encouraged to play a pivotal role.

RAE KWON CHUNG (Republic of Korea) said in order to explore practical ways to promote the transfer of technology, his Government was currently undertaking a feasibility study on the role of publicly funded and publicly owned technologies in the transfer of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries, with the joint participation of UNCTAD, the Commission on Sustainable Development and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Publicly funded and publicly owned technologies -- unlike commercial technologies that were subject to private ownership -- could be transferred if there was a willingness on the part of the sponsoring government. His Government believed the study could explore the potential of the mutually beneficial sharing of government-sponsored technologies among developed and developing countries.

Technology transfer was primarily a private sector business, as had often been pointed out by developed countries, he said. That did not mean, however, that governments did not have any role to play in technology transfer promotion. Statistics showed that government funding accounted for an average of 36 per cent of total national research and development spending among countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and such funding comprised 39 per cent in the European Union and the United States.

Governments would find it a lot easier to transfer their own technologies if some multilateral mechanism existed through which other governments would do the same, he said. And it would be even better if governments could expect to get something in return for their contribution. The possible outcomes of the study might include the establishment of an environmentally sound technology bank in which governments pooled and shared their patents. Since many developing countries also provided funding for technology development and held patents, the transfer of publicly owned technology could happen not only from developed to developing countries, but also among developed and developing countries.

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