And in order to raise productivity, developing countries need to establish linkages with leading centres of innovation wherever they are - not just in the developing world. These countries also need to take a fresh look at role of the private sector. The global knowledge terrain is marked by extreme disparities in the creation of knowledge. The industrialized world generates nearly 90 per cent of world scientific output. Similar patterns of knowledge distribution are also reflected in the registration of patents and other forms of intellectual property rights.
Innovative activity is concentrated in the triad of Western Europe, North America and Japan.
These disparities are partly a result of differences in the rate of Investment in research and development and the overall support for inventive activities in these countries. Of this, North America and Western Europe accounted for 37.9 per cent and 28 per cent respectively. Japan and the newly-industrialized countries accounted for nearly 18.6 per cent. Africa's share stood at 0.5 per cent, and has been declining since then. These figures suggest that any strategy for developing science and technology in poor countries that does not seek to create alliances with centres of innovation in the developed world is likely to condemn itself to a marginal position.