Synopsis The global economy is being changed in profound ways by the onward march of science and technology. Technological change has of course always been a central engine of economic growth, but what is significant about the past decade is the acceleration in the pace of change and, as more and more countries have made efforts to improve their macroeconomic and policy environments, technology and technological innovation appear to have entered a “golden age”, a time when they are emerging as the key drivers of growth and development.

There are, to be sure, still many basic battles to be won in the developing world, addressing fundamental issues of development from reducing poverty levels and the incidence of disease to enhancing opportunity and the quality of life for large segments of the world’s population. But, as economists are prone to point out, what matters most is what happens “at the margin”, and at the margin technologies today- particularly information and communication technologies (ICT)-are increasingly playing the central catalytic role in pushing the development process forward.