Volume 16, No. 2, July 2006
Technology Adaptation And Exports
How some developing countries got it right
Edited by Vandana Chandra
The book has assembled a rich portfolio of case studies of successful industrial development experience in a series of poor and formerly poor countries ranging from Kenya to Taiwan. A striking generalization that emerges is that government has been involved in an important way in supporting and promoting technology development and institutional innovation in support of private sector entrepreneurship in each of the case studied.
The industries studied range from the processing of resource-based commodities to advanced communication technology. Public support played a critical role in enabling firms in these industries to become competitive in domestic and international markets. As the technology employed in the several industries became more sophisticated, government support in the form of technical training, technological development, and scientific research, and in the reform of market and regulatory institutions, also became increasingly important. The book emphasizes that that technological learning and upgrading is an essential part of the economic development process, and that government programs have a profound influence on the effectiveness and direction of technological learning.
The book has been published by the World Bank, Washington DC, 2006.