Towards effective technology policies in Latin America

Abstract

Application of technology is today — of all possible factors — the most determinant of the productivity that a workforce can achieve. In addition to its impressive contribution to economic growth, technological progress presents potential contributions, equally significant, to social cohesion and access to opportunities. In the 1950s and 1960s the forecast for the development of a Latin America endowed with good natural and human resources, in comparison with other zones of the planet, was very favorable. However, time went on, and Latin America deepened its contradictions between the potentialities of development and its socioeconomic asymmetries; social inequality hits 40% of the population with poverty. This paper seeks to contribute to the discussion of some factors that have deteriorated our social capital — pointed out by international experiences as the key for success in reaching a competitive development based on its own resources-, and have undermined the legitimacy and implementation of certain public policies; among them, those somehow link scientific and technological development with economic development. To reach solidarity and a sustainable and inclusive human development requires being clear about your goals, about the resources that are available, about what has been reached at present, and also about the weaknesses and circumstances that, in a society, are detrimental to the human development that is aspired.