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There is an increasing concern among policy-makers in many countries about national 'competitiveness' and the technological dynamism required to be competitive. In developing countries, industrial and technological performance is closely linked to their capacity to use technologies efficiently. This reflects the fact that they are seldom 'innovators' in a narrow sense, but they crucially need to be able to acquire the foreign technologies relevant to their competitiveness, absorb them, adapt and improve them constantly as conditions change. Following this notion of innovation and technical change, we develop a concept of National Technology System. This paper contributes to this debate by specifically focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and using original microeconomic evidence on scientific and technological infrastructure. In this region, in spite of continuing liberalisation and openness, competitiveness is …