sustainable development 20 years on from the ... - José Eli da Veiga

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Figure V.10
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: DISTRIBUTION OF INVESTMENT IN R&D,
1999 AND <strong>20</strong>08 (OR LATEST FIGURE AVAILABLE)
(Percentages)
A. 1999 B. <strong>20</strong>08
Rest of Latin America
and the Caribbean
(12.8)
Argentina
(12.6)
Rest of Latin America
and the Caribbean
(13.0)
Argentina
(6.4)
Mexico
(<strong>20</strong>.2)
Mexico
(14.1)
Brazil
(54.4)
Brazil
(66.5)
Source: Ibero-American Network of Science and Technology Indicators (RICYT), El estado de la ciencia en imágenes, <strong>20</strong>10.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the behaviour pattern of R&D investment differs from that
of the more developed economies, in terms of both the sources of financing used and the sectors in which
the investment is undertaken.
While the private sector produces the greater part of GDP in the region, the public sector
continues to make the largest contribution to financing R&D, accounting for over 60% of the total
(UNESCO, <strong>20</strong>10b). In contrast, in other more developed economies, the main agent financing and
implementing science and technology activities is the private sector. In the United States, for example, the
private sector accounts for 65% (ECLAC, <strong>20</strong>08). In addition, in Latin America and the Caribbean,
publicly funded <strong>development</strong> of science and technology tends to put greater emphasis on conceptual
aspects than innovation applied to processes.
Nonetheless, as shown in figure V.11, R&D investment by firms has increased in some countries,
such as Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay.
Moving towards a green economy in the context of <strong>sustainable</strong> <strong>development</strong> and poverty
eradication —the theme of Rio +<strong>20</strong>— will require not only an increase in regional R&D investment, but
also mechanisms to transfer funds and technologies, along with capacity building.
Instruments such as a royalty levied on the extraction of non-renewable natural resources could
play a key role in obtaining resources to foster innovation and promote apprenticeship policies, together
with R&D investments aimed at creating new and different productive activities that make it possible to
ensure the long-term sustainability of economic activity based on the extractive industries, and the
transfer of wealth to future generations. The paradigm in this context is the mining royalty established in
Chile since <strong>20</strong>05, which finances a fund to provide incentives for national technological <strong>development</strong> (the
Innovation for Competitiveness Fund-FIC).