The two World wars caused great damage to German economy. Markets, territories, human and natural resources, industries, technology and the acceptance and trust of the rest of the world were lost.

Germany´s drive was then to regain lost markets based on knowledge (the only thing it had not been completely deprived of), through the creation of superior products. Thus, Germany competed following a differentiation strategy ("to be the First in doing something"), taking advantage of its highly skilled people, especially in the scientific and technological fields.

The distinctive sign of the so-called "German miracle" was a permanent investment in innovation by the public, and especially, the private sectors. In 1970, research expense represented 1.9% of the GDP, which increased to 2.5% in 1985 and is currently maintained at 2.512%. The private sector contributes 67.7% to the whole investment in innovation.

With three Nobel prize winners in Science, Argentina has the necessary talent to find chances of development and growth in this world crisis scenario. It is time to take up the challenge, since, as one of these Argentine scholars, Dr. Bernardo Houssay, used to say:

"Rich countries are rich because they do research and it is not true that they do research because they are rich".
The Argentine-German Chamber wishes to thank those that have sponsored this undertaking. In particular, we wish to thank the numerous writers who made this publication possible through their contributions.

Dr. Thomas Leonhardt
Vice President of the Argentina-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce