Strategies for the Scientific Progress of the Developing Countries in the New Millennium: The cases of Serbia, Slovenia and South Korea

Abstract

The quality and significance of scientific research in any society could be used as mirrors of its prosperity. By comparing two cases of prosperous scientific management, of South Korea and Slovenia, with the problems of poor scientific and industrial productivity typically faced by the developing countries and illustrated using the example of Serbia, a few general guiding lines for the evolution of a society towards higher scientific and social prominence are outlined. It is argued that the most favorable pattern of growth should be based on a parallel progress in control of scientific policies on one side and in the excellence of scientific and basic education on the other. The "leapfrog" tactics, according to which, the less developed countries should learn from the natural cycle of alternate progressions and regressions that the developed countries experience, is invoked as an essential systemic strategy to be adopted. Applied research is demonstrated to be most productive when it is carried out on the basis of already established infrastructural and industrial prosperity. Examples are given in favor of the fact that the technological design and industrial solutions shown as successful in the context of a developed society often turn out to be disastrously impractical and inefficient when simply transformed to less developed social circumstances. As a result, the strategy of an adjustment of production capacities to local needs has to be considered when implementing a new technology on different social, political and economic grounds. Finally, it is concluded that to provide conditions for efficient transfer and implementation of know-how and technologies, embedment into international science and engineering networks is required as much as strong local scientific and technological bases.