Competences for green development and leapfrogging in newly industrializing countries

Competences for green development and leapfrogging in Newly Industrializing Countries are becoming increasingly urgent from a global perspective. The integration of these innovations into the development process in the rapidly growing economies requires knowledge build-up and technology cooperation. The prospect of exporting sustainability technologies can add an incentive for them to move towards sustainability technologies. These issues also affect innovations to increase material efficiency, which are receiving increasing interest among sustainability innovations. The competences for green development are analyzed with an innovation indicator approach. The general innovation capabilities are evaluated using R&D indicators and survey results about general innovation capabilities. Technological competences in the sustainability fields are a key indicator for the absorptive capacity of sustainability technologies and for the ability to export them. International patents and publications, and successes in foreign trade indicate to what extent a country is already able to participate in global technology markets. The resulting pattern shows various strengths and weaknesses of the analyzed countries. In general, the knowledge build up in material efficiency strategies is above-average in the Newly Industrializing Countries. There is a strong need for strategic positioning of the countries and for coordination of the various policy fields involved.