ABSTRACT
Institutional reorientation is necessary if developing countries are to benefit from the global information revolution and the information economy. Investing in advanced information processing hardware without institutional reorientation is unlikely to give adequate returns. National institutions need to proceduralize inventory of local expertise as a preparatory step in technology project planning. The power alcohol programme was designed without input from resident sugar technologists and chemical engineers. These skills were long resident in Kenya and were the closest required for the programme. The national car programme was similarly designed without the local motor trade, despite its being the only source of resident expertise in the country. Coupled with the culture of poor goal specificity, this 'serious failure in industrial policy' makes Kenya continually dependent on foreign enterprises to conceive, initiate and manage industrial expansion. Institutional reorientation and attitude change is a social engineering undertaking in less developed countries (LDCs) and needs prioritization, clarity of purpose and resources.
