Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Nour, Samia
Author-Email: nour@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT, and Faculty of Economic and Social Studies,
	 Khartoum University
Title: Arab regional systems of innovation: characteristics and implications
Abstract: This paper employs both the descriptive and comparative approaches and 
	 uses the definition of systems of innovation used in the literature to 
	 discuss the systems of innovation in the Arab region. We explain that 
	 the two common characteristics of poor Arab regional systems of 
	 innovation is apparent from both the poor subsystems of education, S&T 
	 and R&D and ICT institutions across the Arab countries and the heavy 
	 concentration of R&D activities within both public and universities 
	 sectors and very limited small contribution of the private sector in R&D 
	 activities. We find that the major implications are the poor performance 
	 of the Arab region in terms of S&T indicators, local technological 
	 capabilities, technology achievement index, increasing technological and 
	 knowledge gap and distance between the Arab region and the other 
	 advanced regions in the world and poor integration in the global 
	 knowledge economy. Therefore, the major policy implication from our 
	 analysis is that it is essential for policy making in the Arab region to 
	 confirm commitment to enhance the institutions and systems of higher 
	 education, S&T, R&D, technological infrastructure, ICT and scientific 
	 cooperation to build the Arab regional systems of innovation and to 
	 achieve economic development in the Arab region. 
Classification-JEL: O10, O11, O30
Keywords: Education, S&T, R&D, Systems of innovation, Arab region
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 2011
Number: 058
File-URL: http://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/wppdf/2011/wp2011-058.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2011058