UNDOUBTEDLY, science and technology are integral and pivotal in economic development and therefore great emphasis and resources have to be placed in this area if a country is to significantly increase its rate of industrial and economic development,
The history of the world has irrefutably demonstrated this and the world’s first economic giant, Britain, is a good example of how science and technology were instrumental in transforming its feudal-agrarian type economy into a modern, industrialised one. Other European countries followed suit which made Europe into the most industrialised and economically powerful group of states.
In more recent times India, China, Brazil and South Korea-all emerging economic and industrial giants-have also shown how the use of science and technology could transform backward economies into powerful economic and industrialiised ones.
“Federal funding in the physical sciences as a portion of our gross domestic product has fallen by nearly half over the past quarter century.  …So I’m here today to set this goal:  We will devote more than 3 percent of our GDP to research and development.  We will not just meet, but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the space race, through policies that invest in basic and applied research; create new incentives for private innovation; promote breakthroughs in energy and medicine; and improve education in math and science.”
On April 27th, President Obama gave an inspiring speech at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C about the importance of scientific research and education. He began by describing the threats to global sustainability and economic wellbeing faced throughout the world and  in the United States.
“At such a difficult moment, there are those who say we cannot afford to invest in science, that support for research is somehow a luxury at moments defined by necessities.  I fundamentally disagree.  Science is more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our quality of life than it has ever been before.”

Where the dilemma lies however, especially with respect to the poor and developing counties, is how to find resources which are scarce to fund the development of science and technology.
Many countries have adopted the public/private sector partnership approach, as increasingly, governments are finding it difficult to unilaterally fund the process of developing science and technology to the desired levels. In addition, many scientific,  technological and tertiary institutions are also forging a close collaborative approach thereby complementing each other’s research and development work.
In a power point presentation entitled :IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE  DEVELOPMENT OF A  COUNTRY: Can underdeveloped countries afford not to have a global competitive industry?  Edgar Sánchez-Sinencio noted:
“The best companies devote at least a third of their investment to knowledge-intensive intangibles such as R&D, licensing and marketing.
“Universities are among the most important engines of the knowledge economy. Not only do they produce the brain workers who man it, they also provide much of its backbone, from laboratories to libraries to computer networks.”
Against this backdrop there was a recent, positive development happening here as the University of Guyana and the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate in the sharing of instrumentation and resources and to have staff and student exchanges and access to research and library.
Perhaps such a development should have taken place earlier, because IAST is Guyana’s leading science and technology research and development institution, while UG is the highest tertiary education institution so it is only logical that they should be engaged in close collaboration.
Indeed, for some time now  questions have been raised of whether these two institutions are playing the role they ought to be playing in the national development process. Many have argued that these institutions have been divorced from the national development process.
It is therefore hoped that the signing of the MOU will be a catalyst in ensuring that these two pivotal institutions become an integral part of national development.