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How Technology Has Changed The Development Of Heavy And Chemical Industries

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During the eight years between 1992 and the 21st century, the result of investment in research and development (R&D) by governments and private companies will change the pattern of economic activity as radically as the development of heavy and chemical industries did between 1955 and 1970. A new industrial structure is emerging, one based on microelectronics, computers, telecommunications, automation, biotechnology, aerospace, engineering, new materials and on new forms of energy.
Since World War II it seems that with almost every decade a new consumer electronics technology has emerged on the international scene to provide immense opportunities to companies prepared to manufacture such products. In the electronic media, examples are television in the 1950s, transistor radios in the 1960s, color television in the 1970s and home VCR 's in the 1980s. The pace of technological innovation, supported by organized R&D, has become increasingly fast. The period in which research was envisioned as "l 'art pour l 'art" has come to an end. Technology is the future; it drives economic growth and determines the course of living standards. But the route of technological progress in the near future will be largely decided within a triangle formed by the United States, Europe and Japan. The positions taken by the private companies of these countries and by their respective governments on basic and applied R&D will determine the future of technology itself. Decisions concerning R&D made

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