Gabon - Science and technology

Gabon has a shortage of trained scientists and technicians and relies heavily on foreign—mostly French—technical assistance. In Libreville there are a French bureau of geological and mineral research, a technical center for tropical forestry, a research institute for agriculture and forestry, and a center for technical and scientific research. A laboratory of primatology and equatorial forest ecology is at Makokou, and an international center of medical research, concentrating on infectious diseases and fertility, is at Franceville. The University Omar Bongo, founded in 1970, has a faculty of sciences, schools of engineering and of forestry and hydraulics, and a health science center. The University of Sciences and Techniques of Masuke, at Franceville, founded in 1986, has a faculty of sciences. The Interprovincial School of Health is located in Mouila. In 1987–97, science and engineering students accounted for 29% of college and university enrollments. The African Institute of Information, at Libreville, trains computer programmers and analysts. In 1986, research and development expenditures totaled CFA Fr380 million; in 1987–97, 23 technicians and 234 scientists and engineers per million people were engaged in research and development.