Mexico's Innovation Cha-cha

In 2004, nations that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on average invested 2.3% of their gross domestic product (GDP) in R&D. Mexico's R&D investment in 2004 was less than 0.4% of GDP, a ratio that has remained essentially constant during the past decade. Mexico's economic development strategy was based on import substitution, and increasing education levels was seen as critical to making this approach work. second, in 1970, the National Institute for Scientific Research became the National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt) and began to award research grants. The average researcher publishes more papers and is cited by other researchers more often than in most comparable nations.\n Mexico has been among the first 15 nations in the world in terms of GDP during the past 20 years, but it stands in last place among the OECD countries in terms of resources devoted to S&T. This is hardly the basis for using S&T as a real anchor for development and global competitiveness.