BRASIL

Message on the occasion of the

World Science Day for Peace and Development

10 November 2002

I would like to congratulate UNESCO for having proclaimed the 10th November as the "'World Science Day for Peace and Development".

My remarks will focus on science, technology, and innovation as key elements for the development of Brazil and other countries, as well as for their relative position in a world that is undergoing continuous and profound change.

The international system is going through a very complex period in which emerging countries find that their economic prospects are negatively affected by the prevailing asymmetries in resource distribution. Were this not enough, the global role of research and innovation is being constantly reinforced, as the current transition towards a predominantly knowledge-based world economy gathers speed.

Scientific advances and modern technologies have thus become increasingly determinant factors of economic growth. In this context, it is of the essence to remind ourselves that the relative, position of nations, and the social and economic performance of their populations, depends upon their degree of participation in the Knowledge Revolution and in the applications it spawns.

This also determines the ability of countries to effectively incorporate scientific and technological advances into their development agendas, and to disseminate their benefits throughout their respective societies.

Changes stemming from science, technology, and innovation enrich the very concept of citizenship. Today, this concept is closely linked to the right to information, which includes universal access to modem network communications technologies as well as to the beneficial results of research and of innovation.

We must bear in mind our obligation to vigorously face up to strong and perverse trends toward the concentration of world knowledge. This is attested by hard data. Advanced countries account for nearly 90 percent of the world's total investment in R&D, including both public and private funds. On the other hand, S&T investment by lagging countries decreased over the past decade, thereby reinforcing adverse trends, which also affect the area of international cooperation.

In the Information Era, the Digital Divide replicates traditional social and economic gaps between countries and regions. Even more, they are reflected by the contrast between knowledge and know-how "haves", on one hand, and "have-nots", on the other. Scattered world-class centers of S&T excellence that are to be found outside the industrialized world May certainly contributes to add shades to the stark scene of knowledge concentration that now prevails, but in no way do they substantially invalidate or modify it.

Developing nations should intensify their national S&T efforts, with a view to expanding their participation in the quest for the advancement of knowledge and its applications. Encouraging Innovation, intellectual capital formation, and the development of Information Technologies should be placed at the fore of the agenda of developing nations’ governments.

To strengthen technological innovation means to adopt an integrated approach to science, one that incorporates its core areas - the so-called hard sciences - into a fully-fledged national innovation system. Indeed, in order to create an authentic national innovation system, all stages of knowledge - from generation to application - must be effectively articulated.

International cooperation in S&T should also be urgently revisited in all its dimensions, aspects, and potentialities. S&T co-operation, more than S&T competition, is important for developing countries. Long-term international co-operation efforts efforts are needed to mitigate the adverse circumstances these countries have traditionally faced and to create conditions conducive to their productive, peaceful,. and socially adequate incorporation into the process of globalization. Research and Innovation should be more directly channeled to vital social interests, such as food, health, education, housing, and transportation.

Beyond the terrible suffering and human loss that armed conflict brings in its wake, it inevitably brings about disastrous economic consequences. This is indeed apparent from recent empirical studies conducted by international organizations.

Such studies do more than to demystify the belief that increasing military expenditures help the economy to grow by means of investment propagation and spin-offs. They reveal the brutal GDP decline of regions that are visited by violence and beyond that the damage to international trade flows of goods and services.

Moreover, resurrected concerns with international security, on a scale unseen since the [end of the] Cold War, reveal the paradoxes created by the muted coexistence of technological and economic progress, on the one hand, and structural historical problems, on the other.

The concentration of wealth and progress in the hands of a few countries is thereby perpetuated. We must persevere in our [international efforts] to find more open ways to revert current inequalities and asymmetries. It is of the essence to renew [our] moral [commitments] [elements] and to rebuild [our] political foundations. In view of the apparent deficit in world governance and in political and economic leadership, we must preserver in our struggle to achieve sustainable development, to strengthen multilateral fora, to reach a type of globalization that allows for greater solidarity, among many other objectives on the way to the progress of humankind.

The promotion of reinvigorated, innovative forms of international cooperation will be of the essence to help disseminate knowledge and its practical applications, thus realizing cooperation's significant potential for preventing tensions a-ad conflicts and for strengthening international peace and security.