ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the consulting engineering sector can and should have a larger role in the national research and development (R and D) program. It describes the background upon which R and D takes place in the developing countries. The R and D divisions in the state-owned companies lack the independence that their task requires. In the state-owned universities and other state-owned R and D centres of an academic turn of mind, a certain detachment from the needs of the market place has resulted in activities that reflect more the individual professional interests and less the institutional objectives. The working atmostphere in the pure consulting engineering companies, which are usually internally owned, is similar to the one in successful R and D organizations. Consulting engineering companies perform for their clients engineering design of a wide variety of installations. These include, for instance, manufacturing plants; petrochemical, chemical and fossil, nuclear and hydroelectric plants; ports; and telecommunication systems.
