Policy ecosystem for strengthening innovation capacities

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The "International conference on emerging technologies for achieving sustainable development goals" was organized on 5 November in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Our presentation "Policy ecosystem for strengthening innovation capacities – seeing the big picture" took a look at key drivers of economic growth, comparing Finland, South Korea, China, Vietnam and Iran, and discussing how these drivers are changing. The role of population growth, productivity and export was emphasized, and their effect illustrated for these case countries. The analysis demonstrated that growth is increasingly challenging for nations to achieve. In the second section we took a deeper look at South Korea versus Vietnam, and the role of national policy for the growth of those two economies. While national policy can be a strong driver for economic growth early on, if it does not provide for the development of a balanced ecosystem long term growth may be difficult to achieve. The last two sections presented some case examples of real life innovation in emerging economies, and the policy ecosystem needed to support this. In particular, it was emphasized that an innovative economic ecosystem needs to have elements that cover the entire company development cycle – just focusing on one part (such as early stage startups) is not enough.

For more information about the workshop's program, please refer to the United Nations Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology's website or the website of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Tags
South-East Asia, South Korea, Policy ecosystem, Innovation, Innovation capability, Asia Pacific