business rd is therefore particularly relevant to such upgrading and to encouraging innovation and thus to development in developing countries by contrast firms involvement in formal innovation is mixed while firms are heavily engaged in innovation activities in some developing countries such as china the republic of korea and singapore the share of business rd to total rd expenditure in developing regions is far below the world average of per cent per cent in subsaharan africa per cent in asiapacific and per cent in latin america in united nations educational scientific and cultural organization unesco while there were researchers per millbn inhabitants in gbbally the corresponding figures for ldcs and subsaharan africa were and per million respectively a related indicator is the share of science technology engineering and mathematics stem graduates in tertiary education