Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter

The head of the Cabinet body responsible for science and technology policy is calling on Government to increase spending on the sector to stimulate economic growth.

Currently, spending on science by Government represents 0.3 per cent of the value of Jamaica's annual production - the gross domestic product (GDP) - but should be increased to two per cent in 10 years, says Merline Bardowell, executive director at the National Commission on Science and Technology (NSCT).

Mrs. Bardowell said she recently completed a report on indicators of scientific activity in Jamaica which is to be circulated to policy makers.

"It just makes sense. You only have to look at the role that science and technology have played in driving growth in other countries but they have had to make the investment," she said yesterday.

Mrs. Bardowell was speaking at the launch of a draft NSCT report on the role of technology in the sugar industry, held at the Jamaica Pegasus, New Kingston.

The report noted that the most productive and competitive countries are those that similarly invested three per cent of GDP, allied with an enabling environment.

Also attending the launch was Kern Spencer, State Minister for Technology, who agreed with the figure offered by Mrs. Bardowell before adding that it could be "possible in five years."

Mrs. Bardowell also bemoaned the lack of interest from the private sector in the National Foundation for Development of Science and Technology. The subscription-based fund established in 1996, is intended to provide loans to fund research from interest earned but has so far received no funding.

A week ago, at the launch of National Science and Technology Month, national policy was assessed as a "failure" by Professor Ishenkumba Kahwa, head of Chemistry at the University of the West Indies, Mona and president of the Jamaican Society for Scientists and Technologists.

- ross.sheil@gleanerjm.com.