In order to make progress in political, economic and social development, our country needs to promote and integrate agriculture, petrochemical, agro-food, automobile, mechanical, metallurgy, mining and coastal wealth in a balanced way, as well as realize self-energy. Efficiency Adding renewable energy to fossil fuels.
To achieve this, the essential areas to be taken into account are education, science, research and technological innovation, which play a fundamental role in the productive, social and human development of countries, while the marked loss of education at the system level (accompanied by a continuous decrease in budgetary investment), generates one One of the biggest difficulties.
This decline affects the scientific-technological system that loses some good achievements such as Conicet when its mark was in the “hard” sciences and its contributions in nuclear energy, nanotechnology, new materials and satellite technology, or the contributions made by the National. Science and Technology Agency for the development of technology-based projects and companies.
The other actor in the system that should receive more support is the universities. University funding must restore the ground, as at stake is the interdependence of research and innovative projects in its classrooms, laboratories and institutes, which will then become the engines of development.
The time has come to achieve a profound cultural transformation that allows progress towards a modern state, whose leaders take into account vital areas ranging from the economy to social communication, including energy policy, regional integration, health, higher education and internal security, to give Argentina a rhythm consistent with progress. Global, and for economic growth, indispensable technological support.
The ideas of development represent a fundamental difference between “growth” and “development”: the first means an increase in the production of goods and services, while the second, which we understand that our country should aspire to, represents a structural change with improvements in productivity and in the long run.
In times of elections, when we hear candidates say (rightly) that the future of Argentines is in vaca muerta, lithium, the waterway, the countryside, etc., the public debate should revolve around how to use these resources. Not so much for “economic growth” as for “national development”.
It is necessary to stop and reverse the mass exodus of scientists and technicians, which is more harmful to national development than a depletion of foreign currency. As Bernardo Houssay, Nobel laureate in medicine, said: “Although science is global, scientists have a homeland and they have to work for it.”
Today, we need the courage to make a self-criticism that includes the rationality of thought and the courage to explain to ourselves the reason for this process that would have led us to be one of the great countries and not suffer from the structural poverty that led to this economic and social backwardness that we have not yet been able to overcome.
In 2005, together with Eduardo Charo – President of CONICET – and Conrado Franco Faruto – Creator of INVAP and CONAE University – we inaugurated the Strategic Forum for National Development, an entity that brings together scientists, researchers and technicians from the companies we work with to answer the question: how do we use resources to achieve the real development that makes us a country Modern and sovereign.
Norma Cadubi Frigerio is the Chair of the National Development Strategic Forum.
