Technology and development of small countries

Abstract

Technology and science policies provide some of the most difficult decisions for a small country to make. It is also an area of choice that holds considerable promise for development. The barriers are difficult because frontier research is so costly and the knowledge base for effective use of technology is so large, that it is difficult for small, poor countries to gain access, even when the efficient scale of utilization is not prohibitively large. It is promising because science and technology have demonstrated the capability of allowing countries to overcome limitations of economic backwardness and limited resource endowment. For awhile, the belief was prevalent that smallness in technology was the answer to the problems of poor and/or small countries. Small was beautiful! Small was renewable and sustainable. Small was eventually seen as a solution to the economic and environmental problems of countries of all sizes. To some observers, the self -evident virtues of smallness were based on the principles of biology and physics. In the economy of the global village, there is no small country problem.