Insights into the Impact of BID’s Technology Modernization Program on Argentina’s STI Policy

Since the mid-1990s, policies on science, technology, and innovation (STI) have recovered an outstanding place on the agenda of Latin America countries. Several changes have taken place in both institutional systems and policy regulation, planning, and coordination agencies. At the same time, new instruments for the promotion of scientific research and technological innovation in the productive sector were incorporated. International lending agencies such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) played an important role, especially in Argentina where specific policies and instruments were developed and implemented through successive versions of the Technological Modernization Program (PMT). This chapter shows the results of the evaluation of this program and its main instruments in the last 10 years carried out by experts from Quilmes National University. The evaluation shows that the program implementation has strengthened both scientific and technological capabilities of the country and that it has also increased the competitiveness of the productive sector through the production and incorporation of knowledge and technology. In short, the implementation of PMT III has contributed to the development and strengthening of the National Innovation System and the Regional Innovation Systems in Argentina.