ASEAN urged to respond to the challenge of
Science & Technology



The ASEAN countries must strive to pool together their limited scientific expertise or the big financiers of the west will continue to assault their economies with the use of science and technology.

This was the insight conveyed by William G. Padolina, Philippine Secretary of Science and Technology at the 35th meeting of the ASEAN Committee on Science and Technology in Manila recently.

In making this point, he cited how electronic data transmission gave devastating rapidity and precision to the speculative attacks against Asian currencies that precipitated the ongoing financial and economic crisis in the region.

Barriers to trade

He also cited the non-tariff trade barriers against exports of developing countries that are being fostered by protectionist lobbies. These technical barriers to trade, he said, range from requiring certain specific methodologies in the testing and analysis of contamination levels in food products to technical regulations covering packaging and labeling.

"The Philippines has seen these barriers at work in the case of coconut oil and copra meal. With competent S&T work, however, we shall be able to provide technical support to validate and overcome these technical barriers to trade," Padolina said.

He also emphasized that the S&T competence of a country's human resources, its physical facilities and services in telecommunications, transport, health and education are investment incentives.

"The experiences of many countries," he said, "have shown that it is the strength of the science and technology base that attracts inward investments and encourages companies operating on a global scale to invest in research and development within a country."

Protecting lives and health

Science and technology competence also enables a country to take measures necessary to protect plant, animal and human lives and health, he said.

The weak science and technology base of Asian countries, he said, is the reason Asian corporations fail to deliver world-class returns on capital. "Asian conglomerates obtain around five to eight percent returns on capital, while Western multinationals operating in the same markets bring in returns of 25 to 35 percent," Padolina stated.

Hitting the foundation

Quoting Joseph Schumpeter in "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy," Padolina explained that it is not price competition that counts but competition from the new commodity, the new technology, the new source of supply, the new type of organization that strikes at the very foundation and the very lives of Asian corporations."

The future belongs to the knowledge workers, he concluded.