Auteur :
Arvanitis
Rigas,
Mhenni
Hatem
Année de Publication :
2008
Type : Article
Thème : Recherche et développement
Couverture :
Maroc
Innovation policies and innovation activities in firms are, with some exceptions, little known in the context of Mediterranean and North African (MEDA) countries. Still there are innovation policies that have been developed and sustained by the governments, for example, of Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Other countries in the Mediterranean region have also promoted specific schemes and measures for innovation (Jordan, Lebanon, and, to a lesser degree, Syria). In the last ten years, this effort has benefited of the so-called “Barcelona process” (EU-Med cooperation) and the policies have often been supported by the cooperation between the EU and the Mediterranean countries; even though the overall Barcelona process has not necessarily been very successful, research and technological development have been a prolific area of co-operation and institutional developments. A large array of measures have also been devised that aim at the catching-up of industries and the funding of innovation activities in companies (Pasimeni, Boisard, Arvanitis and Rodríguez, 2006).
Additionally, international organisations, bilateral donors and NGOs have participated in the need of the countries to transform their development models from low-cost into knowledgebased production: the EU, the OECD, UNESCO, UNIDO and ALECSO are only a few examples to name. Finally, the World Bank has actively promoted the policies in favour of innovation, mainly through its KNA-MENA initiative (Reiffers and Aubert, 2002).1 A specific emphasis was put by funding agencies and governments in the development of techno-parks and industrial clusters (Saint Laurent, 2005). This policy shift was basically done through measures promoting innovation in the public sector and contacts between the public sector and the productive companies in many forms: engineering networks, promotion of technology transfer units, fiscal measures, promotion of start-ups and venture-capital funding. Finally, at varied degrees, all the MENA countries were profoundly affected by the EU, which served as an example by its own promotion of innovation and instruments set-up to measure it (such as the European Innovation Scoreboard).
This article will revise recent developments in the innovation policies in the case of Tunisia and Morocco as derived from the ESTIME project2, which, among other things, has been instrumental in collecting systematically the policies around the Mediterranean partners of the EU (Arvanitis, 2006). Other projects try to fulfil the need for information in the MENA region such as Medibitikar or the Mediterranean Innovation and research coordination Action (MIRA). MIRA is setting-up a collective network for the observation of science and technology in the MENA region and Medibtikar is setting-up a network that will collect information specifically related to innovation (see the Network for Evidence-Based Innovation Policy (NEBIP) in the MEDA countries; it was created in the framework of large EU-funded project during the second year of Medibtikar).
After a view of the transformation of the research systems in MENA countries, we will examine the indicators and focus on the example of Tunisia and Morocco, since these two countries have developed a systematic policy toward research as well as innovation surveys.