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Scientific and Technological ministerial: taking stock
The increased globalisation of R&D and innovative activities, the emergence of global issues transcending national boundaries, as well as the growing costs of scientific research, pose new challenges to policy-makers, ministers were told at the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP) at Ministerial level on 22-23 June 1999. Ministers recognised that in order to reap the potential benefits from globalisation, national S&T policies would have to be directly embedded into an international perspective so as to increase the capacity of economies to access and exploit the results of global scientific and technological activity. They emphasised stronger S&T linkages with non-OECD countries. Agreeing that global environmental issues are important for international S&T co-operation, Ministers welcomed Korea’s proposal to host an international symposium in Seoul to discuss ways to promote and facilitate the sharing of environmental technologies between the developed and developing countries. José Mariano Gago, minister of science and technology of Portugal, chaired the two-day summit meeting, which provided a timely opportunity to discuss new policy challenges arising from the expansion of scientific and technological knowledge, its increasing influence on the patterns and the dynamics of economic growth, and its contribution to sustainable development and social well-being. Ministers recognised the need for increased communication with the scientific and business communities and society at large, and gave high priority to measures that could strengthen the innovative performance of economies and provide new job opportunities. Biotechnology is an important part of the OECD’s work programme and ministers acknowledged the important contributions made by the CSTP Working Party in the areas of health, industrial sustainability and the development of scientific infrastructure. Moreover, initiatives aimed at establishing an international co-ordinating body that would implement a Global Biodiversity Information Facility were encouraged.
For more information on the outcomes of the CSTP ministerial, please visit: http://www.oecd.org/subject/cstp/1999/.