The government said last month it is diverting 5 billion pesos ($3.8 million) from other public programs to the National Science and Technology Research Council (CONACYT). Half of the supplemental funds are to be used for scientific research and half for technological development.
But reaction in the scientific community has been restrained. The new funds do little to close the gap between the $6 million budgeted this year for scientific and technological research projects managed by CONACYT and, for example, the $20 million budgeted in 1981, before Mexico's economy was buffeted by the devalued peso and the worldwide oil glut.
"A drop in the bucket," a CONACYT administrator scoffed. "The answer to science and technology development problems quite obviously is not to wait for more money from above, but to look more and more to the private sector for support."
Between 1970 and 1980, Mexico increased its science and technology ...
