ALGERIA, TECHNOLOGY TRANFER IN THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY AND INNOVATION : TRAJECTORY AND PERSPECTIVES TRAJECTOIRE ET PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

The choices made by Algeria in the quest for development have formally given the priority to the industrial sector as engine of economic growth in the sixties. However, the doctrinal choices made implicitly do not seem to have given sufficient attention to technical progress as a result of a static perception held resulting from a neo classical standard vision. The massive flows of capital goods which the development model imposed were often perceived as major vehicles of technology transfer. The new theories of endogenous growth consecrated research and human capital as key factors of growth. Simultaneously, evolutionary perception of growth disqualified the market as sole engine for technical change. This major turning point was neither identified, adequately analyzed by the academic and decision making spheres nor properly integrated at the enterprise level. This paper try to show how the backwardness suffered, in spite of the immense investment capacity results from the inability of the decisions spheres to break away from this static vision of technical progress.