Overview

For a long time, the NRs, particularly nonrenewable resources (such as mining), have been considered as a 'curse' for development. Nowadays, existing empirical and normative evidence suggest that NRs can be an engine for development given presence of good institutional capacity and sound policy. Latin American (LA) countries, especially those endowed with natural resources, had grown economically owing to the boom of resources in the 1990s and 2000s; however, during the booming period, structure of economy became more reliant on natural resources moving away from manufacturing sector. In the 2000s, important policy shift was made in many LA countries to pay more attentions in enhancing knowledge intensive activities to bring about much needed structural transformation. As the result, numerous governments with rich natural resources (namely Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru) created a mechanism to actively invest income incurred from NRs on knowledge, namely, Science, Technology, Research and Innovation (STRI), in the 2000s. While these attempts are being carried out, its impacts are still considered limited　This paper will present some of these attempts through comparing existing cases using a set of design criteria, created based on literature review. The paper will use the result of comparative analysis to come up with some practical policy suggestions for proposed mechanisms.