Sustainability in the 21st century requires investments in
smart development – getting more food and industrial output
from the same amount of material and energy inputs. It
makes business and ecological sense. Stimulating growth
through green technology and investments can provide
the financing, innovation platform and political attention to
begin the process of effecting this transformation – with the
emphasis on making growth processes resource-efficient,
cleaner, and more resilient without necessarily slowing
them. There are existing technologies and practices which
need to be scaled up and deployed at a larger scale. For
example, precision agriculture, efficient water supply and
re-use, and clean (renewable) energy generation fuels and
other frontier technologies are already part of the “green”
growth agenda in the region awaiting appropriate policy
signals and regulatory incentives for “take-off.”