The New Bioeconomy: Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology in Developing Countries

Note

This paper was prepared by the authors for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, November 15-16, 2001 and later published by the United Nations in 2002.

The paper is concerned with the ability of developing countries to play a significant role in what is clearly an emerging field, involving the wider application of modern biotechnologies in areas such as agriculture, medicine and industry. We refer to the confluence of modern biotechnologies and the market niches that they occupy as "the new bioeconomy". This analysis is guided by heuristics from the influence of microprocessing on traditional industries - especially manufacturing - in the 1980s and 1990s. In this regard, we surmise that every industry using biological resources will be affected in one way or another by modern biotechnologies. New industrial structures are likely to emerge, driven by technological innovation. The new bioeconomy will benefit from advances in other fields, especially informatics, and it will take root in countries and regions that take deliberate steps to create an enabling environment for its adoption. The new bioeconomy will also be driven by considerations such as industrial sustainability. The paper suggests that sustaining a new bioeconomy entails the adoption of a global governance regime for biotechnology so as to bring a large number of developing countries into the global trading system. Failure to do so will create a "genetic divide" among countries and is likely to intensify public opposition to biotechnology. Such opposition is likely to be fuelled by presumptions about possible market dislocation and apparent features of technological disparities between nations. The elements of such a governance system include improvements in market access, development of technological capabilities, access to technology, national regulation of biotechnology, and the management of risks and benefits associated with its use.

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