International technology transfer and development: a case study of sugar industry in Tanzania

While it generally asserted that International technology Transfer (ITT) constitutes the main source for these developing countries remain technologically dependent underdeveloped, exploited and in most oases incapable of operating their own industries efficiently and profitably, This contradiction has prompted the researcher to undertake this study in order to make a critical examination of the ITT process and its implications on development in the sugar industry in Tanzania. The presentation in this study is organized in five chapters. Chapter One sets the general theoretical framework of the study. This chapter isolates the various theoretical issues which are important in explaining the character of the LTT process. Chapter two gives an overview of the development of the sugar industry in Tanzania and outlines the profiles of the Kilombero and Mtibwa Industrial Units which are the focus of our case study. In Chapter Three the author presents detailed research findings of the study. These findings lend support to the view that, far from technology being effectively transferred from the developed to the developing countries, the adverse nature of the ITT Process prolongs the importation of technology restricts the diffusion of techniques within the productive sectors studied; and inhibits the overall development of an indigenous technological capability. Chapter four examines some issues of technology policy within the sugar industry. Chapter five gives a summary, conclusions and some recommendations. The conclusion drawn from this study is that technological dependence in the sugar industry and Tanzania in general tends to be perpetuated rather than reduced by the very process of technology transfer intended to eradicate it.