The scientific and technological revolution is extremely diverse in the set of goods and services offered on the world market. In particular, technology becomes a commodity.
International UN documents interpret the concept of “technology” in two ways: on the one hand, as a set of design solutions, methods and processes for the production of goods and the provision of services; and on the other hand, as materialized or materialized scientific and technical knowledge (machines, equipment, etc.). This means a certain heterogeneity of objects of trade in the world technology market. However, usually “technology appears on the world market in the form of a complex of scientific and technical knowledge about the techniques and methods of production and also the forms of its organization and management.”
The experience of recent decades shows that the level of technology development in a particular national economy depends on the position of the latter in the world market, due to the presence (or absence) of competitive advantages. The parameters of competitive advantages can vary significantly. Thus, in the conditions of a predominantly extensive type of reproduction, the criteria of costs, prices and quality prevail. Mainly intensive (innovative) type of reproduction meets other criteria – the absolute novelty of products, the timing of the possible deployment of their production to competitors. However, in any case, competitiveness is determined by innovativeness, only the forms of its manifestation are different: a gradual improvement in the consumer properties of products or a transition to new generations of technology; expansion of the list of its types within the framework of the unity of their systemic quality.
The modern economy is becoming increasingly innovative, that is, the degree of its ability to generate and assimilate new knowledge and technology is growing due to the increase in the speed of dissemination and the intensity of the domestic and international flow of knowledge and technologies carried out through the interaction of subjects of the national and world economy.
The Republic of Belarus does not remain aloof from the noted trend. A feature of the current stage of socio-economic development of the state is the transition to an innovative path of development. Science is one of the main tools for achieving strategic goals in priority areas
Scientists now consider a technological resource as a full-fledged production resource or economic factor of production along with traditional ones. The process of bringing the technology-idea to the stage of commercial implementation, when the technology-product becomes in demand in the market, is called innovative activity.
The technological resource of a country can be characterized, as can be seen from Table 1, in many respects.
Table 1.
Some characteristics of the technological resource of Russia and other countries in 1995 (expert ratings)
Russia | Poland | China | UNITED STATES | Germany | Japan | |
1.Level of technological development. 2.The level of development of information technologies. 3.Commercialization of research. 4.Own innovations. 5.Own well-known trademarks. 6.Licensing of foreign technology. 7.Technological transfer through foreign direct investment. 8.Assimilation of new technology. | 44 41 45 36 52 51 52 53 | 40 44 42 34 45 41 23 52 | 31 45 39 13 44 32 30 42 | 1 1 1 1 1 28 27 2 | 5 18 15 5 4 35 49 20 | 2 9 4 10 2 16 47 1 |
The data given in Table 1 indicate that the undisputed leader, in terms of the development of technological resources, is the world’s most powerful power – the United States; expert ratings of the technological resource of Germany and Japan are also quite high. In this regard, it should be noted that Russia looks very modest against this background, which predetermines the intensification of efforts in the latter at present in the field of research and development.
The high level of development of the technological resource in the national economy is directly related to the share of high-tech, medium-tech and low-tech industries in it.
Here is a classification of industrial sectors in terms of their manufacturability.
High-tech industries:
Pharmaceutics; electrical engineering, excluding communication equipment; radio, televisions and communication equipment; aircraft construction; scientific instruments; computers and office equipment.
Medium-tech industries:
chemical industry, excluding pharmaceuticals; rubber and plastics; non-ferrous metallurgy; non-electrical engineering; transport equipment; automotive industry; other manufacturing industry.
Low-tech industries:
food, beverages and tobacco; textiles and leather and footwear; woodworking and furniture; paper and printing; non-metallic mineral products; steelmaking; ferrous metallurgy; shipbuilding.
The high level of development of the productive forces of developed countries and the serious representation of high-tech industries in their economies are based on the created infrastructure of scientific and technological progress, including, firstly, industrial laboratories, research institutes and design bureaus, pilot production; secondly, higher education institutions and universities; thirdly, government departments, institutes and laboratories. All elements of the infrastructure interact with each other. Thus, state structures stimulate the innovation process as a whole, conduct research and development of national importance. The science sector trains highly qualified specialists, generates new scientific ideas. The business sector takes on the bulk of applied research, fine-tuning in the production of ideas and innovations proposed by other sectors. For example, in the United States, industry accounts for 70% of the execution of the budget for research and development (R&D), the state – 11%, universities – 16%.
“The top five Western countries – the United States, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom – spend more on R&D than all the rest of the world combined, with America’s share in this group exceeding 50%.” As a result, the countries of the “big seven” control 80% of the market for high-tech products. Of the 50 macrotechnologies that create a market for high-tech products, 46 are the property of these countries, and the rest of the world accounts for 4. The U.S. owns 20 to 22 priorities. In the foreseeable future, Russia will be able to bring no more than 6-7 macro technologies to the world level, and the primary basis is developed transport, chemical, and power engineering; special metalurgy; technology of oil and gas production; machine tool building; micro- and radio electronics; computer information technologies; communications; communication and biotechnology are for that.