The Triple Helix As A Model for Economic Development

Economic development is the process of increasing the supply of goods and services and consumption of these resulting in improved livelihoods. By nature goods and services are scarce and thus increasing supply requires innovations in technologies to convert natural and knowledge capital to goods and also innovations in business models to make this conversion economical i.e. make goods and services affordable. The university is crucial in generating knowledge and know-how that underpins innovations while the industry is key in commercializing knowledge and innovations. Both these efforts require considerable mobilization of resources. There is also a need for markets to allow for the exchange of goods and services and also coordinate production activities through price signals. Government plays a crucial role in setting the rules of the game, facilitating the functioning of markets, and also incentivizing actors to participate in otherwise risky economic activities. More crucially government provides public goods. Public goods are
especially critical in ensuring that basic knowledge continues to be created and putting critical pieces of the infrastructures needed to facilitate the production and distribution of goods and services. Therefore public investment is a significant enabler and indeed a catalyst for private investment