THE TYPE OF IMPORTED TECHNOLOGY.
The type of technology necessary at a particular stage of
development in a particular economy depends on a number of fac-
tors, some of them specific to the economy and society concerned.
Therefore technology cannot simply be imported but has to be
adapted to the requirements of the host economy. The foreign
partner is obviously not interested in such specific considerations.
He is likely to import that technology which he knows best,
which is cheaper and which in the final analysis gives him profit.
Thus, for example, the important question of techniques —
whether capital-intensive or labour-intensive - is also decided by
the foreign partner. Arrighi*® has argued that multinational cor-
porations are typically biased against labour-intensive techniques
and capital-goods industry. While it is wrong to say that un-
derdeveloped countries simply need to employ labour-intensive
techniques to reduce the problem of unemployment, the decision
on the question of technique cannot be left to the foreign cor-
poration. This is well illustrated by the two examples of the
Friendship Textile Mill and the Mwanza Textile Mill. The Friend-
ship textile Mill was built by the Chinese at a cost of £2.5 million
with an interest-free loan, and is fully owned by the Tanzanian
Government. At full capacity it employs 3,000 people and
produces 24 million square yards of cloth and 1,000 tons of yam
annually. The Mwanza Textile Mill built at a cost of £4 million,
on the other hand, is 40 per cent owned by N.D.C. 40 per cent by
the Nyanza Co-operative Union and 20 per cent by Amential, a
French Company representing the consultants and managing
agents. Seventy five per cent of the capital cost was financed by
loans from two French banks, repayable with interest. Like the
Friendship Mill, the Mwanza Textile Mill produces 24 million
square yards of cloth annually but is more capital-intensive and
employs only 1,000 local people as against 3,000 of the Friend-
ship.3® Whereas the Friendship Mill is being fully run by local
manpower, trained by the Chinese, who have already left, the
Mwanza Textile Mill has only just initiated a programme for
training.3' (Over and above that the Friendship has been making
profits while the Mwanza Mill has been making losses due to, as
the sixth N.D.C. Annual Report puts it, ‘heavy loan and interest

payment’)®?