ICTR Projects  
 

    Modern technology is the chief provider of all kinds of amenities and material benefits, and therefore all countries, especially the less developed countries, are striving to acquire it from the developed countries, often at exorbitant cost and under terms and conditions which may even be detrimental to their national interest.    
 
        
Often the less developed countries try to achieve the benefits of modern technology by ‘buying’ it   with their hard-earnedforeig exchange derived from the sale of their epleting resources. Unfortunately, the world price for raw materials has declined on a broad front in the last decade. Obviously, therefore, it is in the prime interest of the less developed countries to learn to convert their raw materials with their own technologies into finished or semi-finished goods to be sold abroad. This will have the added benefit of increased employment potential  in these countries.
  
     
The technologies of the developed countries Often fail to function when they are  transplanted Into the less developed countries without suitable modifications to meet the indigenous socio-economic conditions and constraints.  This is because the capital-intensive  technologies of the developed countries are designed to optimize their own industrial parameters, the most important of which is the minimization of manpower required, usually highly skilled.

       
Consequently, these technologies often have little relevance to the development needs of the less developed countries, most of whom are labour-intensive and lack skilled manpower. In the industrial development scene in the less developed countries, there are thus instances of failed Western technology, bought by these countries with their hard-earned foreign exchange.  
        
A substantial body of experts, both in the developed and the less developed countries, now holds the view that technology in a less developed country must grow on its ‘own soil’. It is thus a matter of confidence of the less developed countries in being able to plan and implement their own development schemes, in collaboration with Western technologists who know the deficiencies of  Western technology in the less developed countries. This collaboration, leading to proper technology-transfer, is vitally important for the less developed countries.
                         
With reference to the above, the International Centre for Technical Research (ICTR), was established in 1983 in London  with a primary view to assisting in the development process of the less developed countries in a novel and effective way. When presented with problems of this type, ICTR’s approach is to canvass opinion from its international panel of experts consultants, both from the developed and the less developed countries. These views are then synthesized to arrive at the most suitable and appropriate solution, together with optimised costs.
     
* Incorporated in England as Centre for Technical Research International.
The Aims and Functions of ICTR                                                                                                                   

 The International Centre for Technical Research, which is a non-profit seeking organisation, has two main aims:

To promote by means of publications, study groups, meetings and conferences the awareness study and development of industrial, technical and development processes,

            
 And
 To promote or commission research into industrial, technical and development processes, and publish or arrange for the publication of the results of that research.