UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT

A world in search of an effective growth strategy
Figure 1.2: GERD performed by business enterprises as a share of GDP, 2005–2013 (%)
3.5
Korea, Rep. 3.26
Chapter 1
3.0
Japan 2.64
2.5
2.53
2.0
2.02
USA 1.92
Germany 1.91
1.73
1.68
China 1.60
1.5
1.27
France 1.44
1.0
1.05
1.00
1.91
Australia 1.23
UK 1.05
0.73
Italy 0.68
0.5
0.53
0.50
Russian Fed. 0.68
Turkey 0.45
0
0.24
0.20
0.19
0.18
0.12
India 0.29
South Africa 0.32
Mexico 0.17
Poland 0.38
Argentina 0.12
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Source: OECD’s Main Science and Technology Indicators, September 2015
slowdown persists. In South Africa, there has been a sharp
drop in private-sector R&D since the global financial crisis, in
spite of rising public spending on R&D. This partly explains
why the GERD/GDP ratio shrank from a high of 0.89% in 2008
to 0.73% in 2012.
The high-income countries have been particularly hard hit by
the crisis which swept the world in 2008 and 2009. Whereas
the US economy is back on an even keel, Japan and the EU are
finding recovery an uphill struggle. In Europe, slow economic
growth since the financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing
pressures of fiscal consolidation within Eurozone countries
have put pressure on public investment in knowledge
(Chapter 9), despite the hike in the Horizon 2020 budget.
Among EU countries, only Germany was actually in a position
to increase its commitment to public R&D over the past
five years. France and the UK saw it decline. As in Canada,
budgetary pressures on national research budgets have
led to significant reductions in government-funded R&D
intensity (Figure 1.1). With the notable exception of Canada,
this trend is not perceptible in overall R&D expenditure,
since the private sector has maintained its own level of
spending throughout the crisis (Figures 1.1 and 1.2 and
Table 1.2).
In search of an optimal balance between basic and
applied science
The great majority of countries now acknowledge the
importance of STI for sustaining growth over the longer
term. Low and lower-middle income countries hope to use
it to raise income levels, wealthier countries to hold their
own in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.
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