Technology and Strategy for Economic Development in Third World Countries: a Comparative Study of Malaysia and Nigeria

1. The World is said to be a global village, linked together by all forms of technologies and infrastructures. At the touch of a button, it is virtually possible to access any part of the globe. That is the extent to which technology has gone. It has transformed humanity in several ways that could not have been imagined. Perhaps, no other phenomenon has had so much impact on humanity as technology, since the advent of the Industrial Revolution (Stearns, 1998:5). Nations have emerged from a state of primitive activities to modern societies through the use of new techniques that are more efficient and effective. However today, more than ever before, there is still a sharp line of divide between nations of the west and others. While the nations of the western hemisphere have succeeded in transforming their societies taking advantage of new techniques or more precisely, new technologies, many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are still in the shadow of underdevelopment, probability as a result of poor understanding of technology.