Technology planning can help Africa prepare for the new competition frontier - Economist

ECA Press Release No. 12/2009

Nairobi, Kenya, 25 February 2009 - A senior African economist has stated that technological planning provides African economies with an opportunity to prepare themselves for what he calls “the new competition frontier'.

Mr. Joseph Enyimu, Senior Economist of Ministry of Finance, Planning & Economic Development of Uganda who was speaking in Nairobi Kenya on 25 February 2009 at a workshop on technological planning, described the new competition frontier as a situation in which labor productivity, product diversities and value addition define the strength and resilience of an economy.

“W ith the ongoing de-concentration of global economic centers from the west to other parts of the world, the notion of technological planning provides African economies with an opportunity to prepare themselves for the new competition frontier in which labor productivity, product diversities and value addition define the strength and resilience of an economy”, he said.

The training workshop was the first of its kind and brought together more than 50 economists and scientists from the continent and the Diaspora, following a recommendation of the “Science with Africa Conference” which was held from 3-7 March 2008 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union, Scientific Technical and Research Commission (AU-STRC) in collaboration with the International Council for Science Regional Office for Africa (ICSU ROA) and the Kenya National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) organized the Nairobi meeting.

It convened against the background of lack of integration of technology planning in the countries' development plans and stronger technological governance.

In a welcome remark, Ms Aida Opoku-Mensah, Director ISTD at the ECA noted that Africa countries tend to allocate resources for capital investment while on the other hand paying less attention to the role that technology plays in economic development.

“We have come to realize that one of the limitations of African economies is the lack of technology dimensions. However, now is the time to carry out reforms since the world is moving to the innovation society closely following in the footsteps of information and knowledge society,” she said.

Echoing similar sentiments, Prof Shaukat Abdulrazak, Executive Secretary of the Kenya National Council of Science and Technology in his opening speech said: “African governments have greatly relied on Foreign Direct Investment which no doubt plays a major role in boosting economies of developing countries. However, in the past four decades, funds have largely been dedicated to capital investment, at the expense of technology development. African countries should now reform their investment policies to ensure that every investment has a technology transfer component”.

In a paper, presented by Dr Timamy Mohamed, Ag. Executive Director, African Union Scientific, Technical & Research Commission (AU-STRC), the official lamented that policy-makers do not think of Science and Technology as sectors that can be mainstreamed into wider development efforts.

The paper, titled Technological governance of investments in Africa , contended that Science and Technology ministries or departments in Africa have often laid emphasis only on science and other technical subjects to the disadvantage of technological governance issues.

Resolutions agreed upon to be taken under the joint-partnership of ECA, AUC and ICSU are: (i) Conducting African S&T strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) study; (ii) developing and implementing a sub-region technology planning and governance strategies; and on-line training platform for policy makers and other stakeholders.

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