UNCTAD in that report believe productive capacities have to be developed through three closely interrelated process which are – capital accumulation, technological progress and structural change and the third in the proposal was the development of productive capacities and the associated expansions of the productive employment opportunities which should as a matter of policy should be at the heart of both national and international policies to promote sustained economic growth and poverty reduction in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
The 2007 version of the Least Developed Countries Report has more to tell and it extends and deepens the analysis of the 2006 Report as it focuses on policies to promote technological progress of the LDCs with a view to achieving sustained and accelerated economic growth and substantial poverty reduction.
The Report advocated focus on those policies that encourage proactive technological learning by domestic enterprises rather than on conventionally understood technological transfer and on commercial innovation rather than on pure scientific research. It proves the known knowledge that technological development in the LDCs is very low but made recommendations for progress and development in Least Developed Countries (LDC).
While the Report acknowledges that it does not provide all answers to the issues which it raises ranging from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and ODI transfers, PRSPs, Migration and overall Science, Technology and Innovation and development; it proved to provide more insight and learning from new policy directions like leveraging more learning from International trade and FDI and increasing agricultural productivity in basic staples, in particular by promoting a Green Revolution and provoked fresh thinking about development strategies and poverty reduction in the Least Developed Ccountries (LDC) by both the LDC government, and their development partners.
There is a choice concluded the Report but it also warned that sustained economic growth and substantial poverty reduction cannot occur in the present context of liberalization without learning, and of the present system of global integration without innovation.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has argued in past LDC Reports that the key to sustained economic growth and substantial poverty reduction in the LDCs is the development of their productive capacities and the associated creation of productive employment. This Report extends that argument by focusing on knowledge accumulation, technological learning and innovation as basic processes through which productive capacities develop after years of failure of adjustment policies.
“Unless the Least Developed Countries adopt policies to stimulate technological catch-up with the rest of the world, they will continue to fall behind other countries technologically and face deepening marginalization in the global economy”, concluded the Report as it recommends solutions to the issues with moderate autonomy and vision.
« return.