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Technological Learning as a Means of Catching up for South American Countries

Since International Cooperation is a multidisciplinary field of study, it embraces both economic and political claims within and among countries and their citizens. Today, more than ever, cooperation among policy makers from different countries concerning technology, education and other important issues related to socio-economic development is growing increasingly important to understand the world economy. Bearing that in mind, South American academic community should (1) find out how deeply technological learning is institutionalized in national and regional laws and define common trends about education-related issues for countries in the region; (2) debate how the government deals with more and more autonomous and powerful actors inside the networks of industrial development, in order to coordinate government, public policy makers, universities and companies; and (3) suggest means by which both government and private sector can settle the legal structure of promotion, incentive and financing of technological learning. Technology accumulated by human capital and the proper knowledge management are as important as prudent and responsive fiscal, financial and cambial policies for economic development. Furthermore, one cannot deny the importance of human resources in this process: is the high level of capacity that allows workers to adapt quickly to the new technologies incorporated in national industry. However, due to conjunctural factors, the proper adoption and development of technologies was not possible for South American countries at the beginning of their industrialization process. From the Golden Years following the post-war boom to the lost decade of the 1980s, these countries adopted similar models of economic development basically a domestic market-oriented one called the import substitution industrialization , that leaded to both financial crisis and stagnation that affected capital formation in the continents main economies such as Brazil and Argentina, delaying the accumulation of fixed capital assets, instrumental to industrial development.
Technological Learning as a Means of Catching up for South American Countries Hnder Costa Leal

Export-oriented strategies lead to a highly competitive market in which companies from countries in catching-up with developed economies must accelerate their technological learning so that they keep their market share. In this model, if one country has high level of exports and, thus, increasing foreign exchange reserves, the government is able to keep interest rates low and widely provide loans for private enterprise. Unfortunately, this was not the case of South America in the early 1980s. Different from other countries in catching up with developed economies, such as South Korea where the government was not dependent on foreign loans to keep the economy growing at a substantial pace, in a sense that, by the early 1980s, Korea had already met the requirements to make foreign direct investment South American countries did not have sufficient loans from domestic sources, and thus, our economies waved with the wind of the increasing international interest rate. Only later on, South American governments would realize that a country should not rely only on foreign loans for develop its industrial sector. However, there is another factor accountable for the weak economic performance of South America during that time: human capital has been an issue for South American countries from the outset of their industrialization process. Brazil, for example instead of using labor-intensive industry what would have allowed the workforce to be fully employed , started its economic boom adopting capital-intensive industry, that leaded to both surplus of lowqualified labor force and lack of qualified one. As a consequence, unemployment rate increased in the country and Brazilian population did not have a reasonable level of income distribution. The transformation of industrial structure towards capital-and technology-intensive industry should have come only later in the industrialization process, that is to say, education must precede economic development, providing well-qualified labor force even before economic growth rates come to appear. It did not happen because only an economic planning based on education makes possible a structural transformation in industry within a short period of time. In Brazil and other South American countries the increasing labor force could not be employed in industry

Technological Learning as a Means of Catching up for South American Countries Hnder Costa Leal

because the education system was unable to provide a widespread technological learning. Increasing investment in technological learning means increasing both technology development and productivity that, by its turn, leads to more investment as the process of economic development goes on. Taking into account that development-oriented policies constitute a complex phenomenon that goes far beyond economic variables, South American policy makers must shape economic and industrial policies aimed at increasing the human capital of people that is to say, improving individuals functions and capabilities , and, in so doing, create models of competitive insertion that allows countries in the region to guide their own industrial policies. In order to continue the catching up process with developed economies, countries in the region must succeed in turning industrialization into a gateway for new knowledge management techniques and horizontal transference of know-how, joining the high tech revolution and filling the gaps left by the economic crisis. However, reaching the high tech industrialization will only be possible by means of an outward-looking development strategy, one that allows South America to climb the way of educational technology neither through learning by using nor through learning by doing, but through learning by researching to a certain level at which industries stop using reverse technology and start a process of creative innovation of sophisticated foreign technologies, and at which foreign licenses became a complementary way to accelerate technological learning. The cornerstone of global economy insertion is the education system performance because only through education an economy can increase its capacity of absorbing new knowledge and technology. Since is this absorbed knowledge, by its turn, that allows the creation of a new and home-grown technology, education is a key concept not only to transfer, but also to receive technology. Moreover, if one takes into account concepts such as human, ethical and sustainable development, technological education means increasing the range of choices available to individuals. However, International technology

Technological Learning as a Means of Catching up for South American Countries Hnder Costa Leal

transfer should be understood not as an alternative but as a complement to domestic efforts of industrial learning. Expanding education system is an important measure to set the stage for industrialization. A few years ago, Brazilian government released a new educational policy, aimed at broadening the range of education from the childhood through bolsa-familia (financial support to poor families provided that they keep their children in school) to the University through programs such as PROUNI (University-for-All Program, the largest scholarship program in Brazilian education history, that enables the access of thousands of low-income youngsters to higher education) and REUNI (University Reform, intended to reshape and expand the federal system of higher education). Besides that, Brazilian education policies have sought to reshape science and technology policies by articulating research organizations with financial and regulation agencies. At the same time, Brazil faces the challenge of attracting research community to private sector, since most of Brazilian scientists are concentrated in universities, once academics enjoy greater freedom of research. However, the main reason for the gap in private research in the country lies not on the relation between university and scientists but on the low investment in research within Brazilian private sector. Therefore, South American policy makers should find out what the requirements are for research projects call private companies attention and also how to increase the number of engineer students, and thus, increased human capital for industrial and technological development in the country. At this point, South America has much to benefit from debates on comparative educational systems and from the planning of politics and strategies concerning cooperation on technological education. By these means, countries in the region should explore the possibilities of cooperation both in terms of (1) new methodologies for scientific and industrial development and (2) knowledge production and management in many levels of formal education. Bearing in mind that technological innovation requires strategic

cooperation connecting different economic actors, one can realize that, as the

Technological Learning as a Means of Catching up for South American Countries Hnder Costa Leal

processes goes on, the alternatives of institutional design tend to increase in number and start relying on Information Technology. Information Technology has leaded the world towards an economy of knowledge and velocity in a way never experienced before by human society. During the last few decades, globalization has set forth the production of knowledge through information and communication networks in every sphere of production (university, public and corporate government, private companies, etc). This kind of network will soon replace the globalization we once knew since the emphasis of this process is quickly shifting from liberalization and deregulation to knowledge management and innovation capability. This change became clearer as the ongoing financial crisis the world has faced during the last months emerged. As regards Information Technology, South American countries should make use of new management techniques, such as the electronic government (E-gov), in order to catch up with the great global resources of knowledge in the information society of the twenty-first century. E-gov studies are, more than challenging, due to its comprehensiveness; extremely exciting, given the organizational optimization of the government and the social profit that it implies. Bearing in mind the increasing presence of digital information technologies in government administration, the implementation of an appropriate communication infrastructure that links government and citizens is essential to increase government responsiveness to local needs. E-gov provides the State with the major role of creating and demanding management innovations, and constitutes an excellent mechanism to reverse the process of deregulated ramification that has affected public administration institutions in many South American countries, including Brazil. At the same time, E-gov means the diffusion of information and transference of power to the base of society, what reinforces individual freedom and constitutes, therefore, a real safeguard for democracy and an efficient means of social inclusion. Whilst on one hand, E-gov focuses on the democratization of authority, transparency of public administration and the effective coordination among the spheres of government, on the other, it is the most innovative source of integration in Latin America concerning the share of strategic information
Technological Learning as a Means of Catching up for South American Countries Hnder Costa Leal

among Brazil and neighbor countries in order to combat the drug trafficking in the Amazon and solve other regional problems. Nevertheless, in order to understand digitalization as a means of transparency and accountability, political scientists and governments must first deal with the challenge of promoting digital inclusion in Brazil and other countries in the region. Therefore, in Latin America, electronic government can help expanding the infrastructure necessary to technological learning and information broadcasting and, thus, raise the share of population within the reach of the benefits of technology. Theories that set apart countries with technological destiny from countries without it are outdated, but South American scholars and policy makers shall realize the very reason why some countries are more able than others to develop and allocate human and physical resources in highly yielding investments and to adopt and manage new technologies. Moreover, the very understanding of competitiveness among economies must regard the production of knowledge and the inventiveness of organizations as clear evidences of rejection of mechanist and unidimensional views of administration. It constitutes the evolution to a further level of social management, a holistic view of competitiveness that comprises institutional, cultural, geopolitical and national components. Only by adopting this view can South America become a high-performing economy, with increasing technological development and international competitiveness.

Hnder Costa Leal, International Relations Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS Brazil

Technological Learning as a Means of Catching up for South American Countries Hnder Costa Leal

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Technological Learning as a Means of Catching up for South American Countries Hnder Costa Leal