MEXICO-TECHNOLOGY: Not Quite Head of the Class in OECD

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Aug 4 1997 (IPS) - Mexico has the worst marks of any member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) when it comes to science and technology.

With spending in research and development amounting to 0.33 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 2.17 percent lower than the average among the 25 OECD countries, the country’s productive future seems anchored to a large extent in outside technological development.

The poor performance, highlighted in a government report, brought diverse reactions from authorities and independent experts here Monday.

“A country that does not generate applied science and lives on technology purchased abroad is condemned to compete in second- class markets,” said Jose Yacaman, former head of scientific research at the government’s National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT).

Nine of every 100,000 members of Mexico’s economically active population are involved in research and development, compared to a ratio of 1,240 per 100,000 in other OECD countries like France and Germany, says the CONACYT report released over the weekend.

Since Mexico was admitted to OECD – which groups the world’s 25 leading economies – in May 1994, it has conducted a number of studies assessing its level of development with respect to those of its partners.

“Our science has traditionally been isolated from the country’s burning issues. We must forge that link, and urgently step up the rhythm of production of high-level scientists if we want to take a qualitative leap in development,” said Yacaman.

According to CONACYT, 94.3 percent of the patents registered in Mexico were developed by foreigners. The country’s “inventiveness coefficient” – the country’s creative capacity, including the generation of patents – is a mere 0.1 percent, compared to 4.7 percent in Germany and 3.6 percent in the United States, the study adds.

Development is the responsibility of the business community – “which must understand that sooner or later their businesses will disappear if they don’t invest in technological research” – as well as the universities, the State and society as a whole, said CONACYT director-general Carlos Bazdresch.

“We are a technologically inactive society. But we are aware that in today’s globalised economy we will only be able to compete if we link scientific activity with productive life,” he said, adding that the future outlook was positive.

Mexico is Latin America’s leading exporter, Bazdresch pointed out – although around 80 percent of total sales abroad are from the oil sector or goods assembled in foreign-owned “maquiladora” plants for re-export.

Last year, nearly 33,300 people were involved in scientific activities, nine percent up from 1995. And 5.5 percent of every 100,000 members of the economically active population are scientists and engineers dedicated to research activities, a number that is 12 percent higher than five years ago.

Yacaman explains Mexico’s scientific lag as a consequence of the country’s educational level, which remains low compared to countries of the industrialised north.

Government statistics show that from 1980 to 1995, state spending per high school student dropped 43 percent, while the number of students grew 53 percent. Spending on higher education shrank 28 percent per student in the same period, and 64 percent at a post-graduate level.

And of every 100 Mexican children registered in primary school, only one reaches the university, while 48 percent of the population never even finishes primary school.

Mexico spends less than five percent of GDP on education, compared to the eight percent recommended by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

But in spite of its lag behind developed countries, Mexico “is neither in the streets nor in diapers,” said Bazdresch. “Perhaps the efforts have not provided the hoped-for results, but they have been made.”