Abstract of Dr. Sunil Mani's presentation:

The study is based on the hypothesis that in the case of developing countries, a mere fine-tuning of the financial instruments for supporting innovation, while necessary, is not sufficient. For financial instruments to succeed and bear fruitful results, what is required is non-fiscal policy instruments. The most important of these is a policy of human resource development. The financial instruments for promoting industrial R&D can succeed only if the country has sufficient numbers of technically trained personnel who can engage in R&D. A series of case studies tested this proposition. The cases analyzed were from a group of developing countries referred to as Type 1. These countries have the potential to create new technologies on their own. This potential is represented by the number of US patents granted to inventors in these countries. All in all, there are eleven such developing countries - namely Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. The study focused on the experience of five countries, namely Singapore, Malaysia, India, South Africa and Brazil.

The analysis showed that there are three discernible groups or patterns among these five countries. The extreme case is Singapore, where a clearly articulated innovation policy has been designed to encourage increased R&D investments by private sector enterprises. The country has worked to accumulate a critical mass of technically trained personnel who would then become available for conducting research in R&D laboratories attached to industry, and for initiating technology-based enterprises. Consequently, numbers of research scientists and engineers in Singapore have increased rather significantly. At the other extreme are South Africa and Malaysia, which have sought to encourage R&D investments by introducing large research grants, without at the same time having enough qualified scientists and engineers. The shortage of technical manpower is caused by low enrollment of students (especially at the graduate level) in science and technology-oriented courses. Brazil and India form the middle group. Both countries have a large supply of scientists and engineers, but the number engaged in R&D at the enterprise level is low. In addition, both countries suffer from inadequate financial support for civilian industrial R&D. Systematic research grants are of very recent origin in both countries. The cases thus indicate the need for a well-articulated innovation policy, with emphasis on human resource development.

Brief Biography of Dr. Sunil Mani:

Sunil Mani is currently a Researcher at UNU/INTECH at Maastricht in the Netherlands. He was also head of the graduate studies programme at the Institute during 1998-2003. He received his M.Phil and Ph.D. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and has done postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford on a fellowship from the Ford Foundation, New York. He also worked as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies, Tokyo, on a grant from the Japan Foundation-Asia Center, Tokyo. Prior to joining UNU/INTECH in 1998, he worked for the Centre for Development Studies at Trivandrum in India as an Associate Professor (since 1991) and as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad, India (since 1986).

He is also a member of the International Technology Indicators Panel of the Technology Policy and Assessment Centre, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA and is also the Convenor of the working group on 'Science and Technology for Development' of EADI - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes. His current research interests include effectiveness of innovation policies in developing countries, financing of innovation and the role of venture capital, and R&D capability in telecom equipments in developing countries.

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Admission is FREE & we look forward to seeing you at the seminar.