SA must apply technology to reach poorer regions – World Bank
Thématique :
afrique,
sud afrique
By Guy Copans, Engineering News, 04/03/2008
South Africa has an enormous challenge on its hands to develop underdeveloped parts of the country to ensure that the first-world techniques that it already possessed were spread to the rest of the population, a World Bank official said on Tuesday.
Director of the World Bank’s development prospects group and international trade department, Uri Dadush, said at the Development Bank of Southern Africa/World Bank Development global economic prospects launch in Midrand, that technology development was not only about hi-tech innovation but also about the development of basic amenities such as electrification, sanitation, and immunisation.
He said that more could still be done to improve the productivity of agriculture, noting that while advance technologies were in place, they needed to be better applied in order for these technologies to reach poorer people in the country.
He said that South Africa represented a very interesting case in the technology development sphere, as while the country had world-class companies in a number of areas, it also had relatively low productivity in the economy that was inter-mingled with the firms and sectors that were more advanced.
“South Africa is a good illustration of the fact that you can have technology in a country that is not diffused, leading to enormous gaps in productivity and technological achievement. However, South Africa is not alone in this, as large developing countries such as Brazil, China and India have similar problems,” he noted.
Dadush said that while the technology gap between developed and developing countries has been narrowed, it still remained wide. He attributed this mainly to technology in developing countries reflecting absorption of pre-existing technology, rather than reflecting innovation on a large-scale.
South Africa has an enormous challenge on its hands to develop underdeveloped parts of the country to ensure that the first-world techniques that it already possessed were spread to the rest of the population, a World Bank official said on Tuesday.
Director of the World Bank’s development prospects group and international trade department, Uri Dadush, said at the Development Bank of Southern Africa/World Bank Development global economic prospects launch in Midrand, that technology development was not only about hi-tech innovation but also about the development of basic amenities such as electrification, sanitation, and immunisation.
He said that more could still be done to improve the productivity of agriculture, noting that while advance technologies were in place, they needed to be better applied in order for these technologies to reach poorer people in the country.
He said that South Africa represented a very interesting case in the technology development sphere, as while the country had world-class companies in a number of areas, it also had relatively low productivity in the economy that was inter-mingled with the firms and sectors that were more advanced.
“South Africa is a good illustration of the fact that you can have technology in a country that is not diffused, leading to enormous gaps in productivity and technological achievement. However, South Africa is not alone in this, as large developing countries such as Brazil, China and India have similar problems,” he noted.
Dadush said that while the technology gap between developed and developing countries has been narrowed, it still remained wide. He attributed this mainly to technology in developing countries reflecting absorption of pre-existing technology, rather than reflecting innovation on a large-scale.
