Prof. Xiaolan Fu spoke at the inauguration ceremony of the UN Technology Bank which has become fully operational. The ceremony took place at TUBITAK Marmara Teknokent in Gebze in the north-western Kocaeli province on Monday 4 June 2018. In her address, Prof. Fu highlighted the importance of technology and local capability development as critical measures for sustainable long term economic and social development. According to her, innovation is not an outcome of development but a means to development. She also encouraged universities and research institutions to play a more active role in innovation and technology development and a first step to doing this is to engage with the Technology Bank. She concluded her address by stressing the importance of digital technology to technology transfer and called for more global collaborations not just North-South but also South-South because, according to her technologies created or modified in the South are more close to the factor endowment structure and hence more appropriate to the conditions in the LDCs.

The bank was set up with the aim of strengthening capacities in science, technology and innovation of 47 least developed countries. The bank it is hoped will strengthen national capabilities and provide expertise to the world’s least developed countries, to ensure that they are no longer left behind in achieving internationally agreed development goals.

With the establishment of the new Bank, the Sustainable Development Goal target 17.8 within the 2030 agenda for sustainable development has been achieved.

The Istanbul Program of Action under the fourth UN Conference on Least Developed Countries which took place in May 2011 had called for the establishment of a Technology Bank.

Prof. Xiaolan Fu, the founding director of TMCD was part of the governing council of the bank which made this possible.

Read more about the inauguration here

Read more about the bank here