UN Study Reveals Rapid Growth in Africa's Industrial Technology Acquisition
By Staff Writer
Addis Ababa-- A study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) entitled, “A technological resurgence? Africa in the global flow of technology" has concluded that Africa’s rapid growth in industrial technological acquisition gives rise to the hope that “the Continent may be joining other developing regions in building a sound industrial base, likely to support production of value-added goods and services as well as high-tech products.”
According to Undersecretary-General and ECA’s Executive Secretary, Abdoulie Janneh, the trends associated with technology transfer as assessed in the study provide evidence of the factors driving the impressive economic growth rates recorded in African countries over the last decade.
“The findings reveal an impressive turnaround from the slow growth in Africa’s share of the number of patents, peer-reviewed scientific publications and, technology exports and imports which grew very slowly in the 1980s to 1990s, he says.” “The research provides evidence of a rapid growth rate in Africa’s industrial technology acquisition,” he adds.
Janneh points out that inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI), one of the main channels of technology transfer, into Africa soared over 800 per cent between 2000 and 2008. “Some of the investment has gone into the production of drugs, steel, automobiles and electronics, among others - areas that require the use of technology owned by others,” he says.
The Study is the first ever comprehensive research that tracks flows of investment and knowledge mainly by developing regions and developed country groupings and specifically looks at technology transfer trends in areas such as royalties and licensing fees, capital goods, business, professional and technical services, research and development (R&D); as well as intellectual property rights.
While royalties and licensing fees rose six times globally, sub-Saharan Africa’s royalty and licensing fee payments went up 10 times – second only to East Asia and the Pacific (57 times). The OECD countries saw a rise of 6 times and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) witnessed a 5-fold increase between 1990 and 2008. At the continental level, royalties and licensing fees payments for Cameroon, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland and Tunisia increased rapidly between 1990 and 2007.
The import of capital goods increased by about 7.8-fold for LAC, 7.5-fold for Asia, 4.7-fold for North America, 3.9-fold for Europe and only 3.7-fold for Africa between 1990 and 2006. However, most of the growth in Africa in imports of capital goods was between 2001 and 2006 (a 3-fold increase). In Africa, imports of capital goods increased by more than six times for Madagascar, Zambia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Guinea and Uganda over the same period.
Africa recorded a 5.6-fold growth in terms of receipts by the United States for BPT services from unaffiliated firms between 1990 and 2005. It lags behind Europe (about 7.7-fold) and Asia (about 6.5-fold). However, Africa has the fastest growth in payments by United States firms to unaffiliated firms for BPT services (51-fold), followed by Asia (14.2-fold), LAC (9.5-fold), and Europe (8.7-fold) over the same period.
The number of patent applications has grown only marginally in Africa and LAC but rapidly in Asia. African trends in patent applications vary widely. In general, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia receive a large share of patent applications recorded in Africa. In terms of resident trademarks, Africa recorded about a 2-fold growth which was faster than the growth recorded by the OECD (1.6-fold) and LAC (1.5-fold) but was lower than Asia (8-fold) between 1990 and 2007. South Africa accounts for almost half of the total non-resident trademarks of SSA.
Overall, Africa is performing better in proxies that are closely related to trade and investment such as trade in capital goods and royalties and licensing fees (industrial technologies) than those that represent emerging knowledge such as the flow of intellectual property rights and research, development and testing services (scientific and technological strength).
As a way forward, the study recommends the need to prioritize technology development and transfer through four core areas: promotion of university-industry- government partnership where existing research centres can be used to acquire, adapt and diffuse emerging technology and serve as technology incubators; strategic use of government contracts to encourage technology upgrading of domestic firms and joint-ventures with foreign suppliers; promotion of industrial alliances to enable African firms access emerging and existing knowledge and skills at home and abroad; and entry into international R&D agreements between African countries and leading technology exporting countries.
The study notes that none of these measures recommended entail a significant investment in or creation of new institutions and bodies but rather constitute innovative ways of using existing mechanisms to promote technology transfer. In addition, they will support the current drive to promote investment in R&D and higher education. At the heart of this study is the hope that in the not-too-distant future, the recent rise in industrial technology acquisition may diversify African exports from coffee, cocoa, copper, tea, diamonds and petroleum.