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Science and Technology Development Indicators in the Arab Region

A Comparative Study of Arab Gulf and Mediterranean Countries*

United Nations University (UNU) Institute for New Technologies (INTECH), Keizer Kareplein–19–6211 TC Maastricht, the Netherlands. E–mail: nour@intech.unu.edu.

In this article the OECD (1997) definition of S&T indicators is used, as well as the descriptive and comparative approaches to S&T development in the Arab Gulf and Mediterranean countries. It was found that neither the Gulf nor the Mediterranean countries possessed sufficient financial and human resources necessary to promote S&T for development. Hence, they have manifestly lagged behind the rapidly advancing Asian countries in terms of S&T input and output indicators; the poor S&T input indicators lead to poor S&T output indicators. In both regions most R&D and S&T activities are allocated within the public and university sectors, with very small contribution from the private sector. When comparing S&T indicators in the two regions, the great disparity in terms of S&T input and output indicators is noted. Despite the high standard of economic development as measured by GDP per capita income and HDI in the Gulf countries, the Mediterranean countries show better performance in terms of most of S&T input and output indicators. Moreover, there is very limited scientific cooperation within and between the Gulf and Mediterranean countries and between them and other Arab countries.

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