ABSTRACT
Technology is a crucial input in the industrialization and development of countries. In the current era of liberalization of international trade regimes worldwide and the increasing emphasis attached to international competitiveness, the importance of technology as a factor determining the growth prospects of nations has risen even further. A considerable proportion of technological inputs is sourced from abroad especially in the early stages of a country’s development. Technology is perceived as an intangible asset and is traded internationally either in embodied or in disembodied form. The former includes the transfer of knowledge incorporated in the designs of machinery or that embodied in the skills of migrating experts. The disembodied knowledge is transferred under contracts under which process knowhow, product designs, rights to use patented knowledge or copyrighted designs or drawings are transferred by their owner to another party for a fee. The international technology markets continue to be dominated by a handful of industrialized countries. The technological activity within these countries is also known to be highly concentrated among a smaller set of bigger corporations dominating different branches of industries.
