ABSTRACT
Technology, or more specifically, the ability to utilise effectively new technologies and absorb them into the productive process, is increasingly crucial in determining comparative advantages, creating competitiveness, and promoting economic growth and development. Although most basic research, as well as a good deal of agricultural research, is freely available to developing countries, industrial technology must be acquired by hiring or by stealing from firms that have developed it. The price for this acquisition depends on the nature of the legal system protecting technology in the originating countries, and on the bargaining position of the parties concerned [Stewart, 1990:303].
