Halting the global technology divide

By Hoe Ee Khor and Suan Yong Foo

The attempt of all large economic areas to take a leading position in key technologies at the expense of everyone else is a costly process. A more efficient and cost-effective way is to cooperate internationally in a division of labor. After all, not every economy can be at the top. If everyone tries to do everything on their own, growth and prosperity will suffer.

Heightened US-China tensions have raised the prospect of a deep global technology divide, potentially forcing other countries to choose which camp to join. There are plenty of grim scenarios involving irreconcilable splits between core technologies that power a wide range of products and services, from aircraft and automobiles to precision engineering for robotics and payment systems for e-commerce. Should these scenarios materialize, the world’s two largest economies will pour huge amounts of resources into a zero-sum race to control the cutting edge.

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