UN urges more investment in cutting-edge technologies

Japan, the United States but also increasingly China, are among the few nations driving global innovations like 3D-printing, the UN said Wednesday, urging more investments in fields expected to carry future economic growth.

In a report on the importance of vanguard innovation on economic growth, the World Intellectual Property Organization said nearly all patents within the cutting-edge areas of 3D printing, robotics and nanotechnology were held by a handful of countries.

"We need to reinforce the environments that give rise to the breakthrough technologies of tomorrow," said WIPO director Francis Gurry.

The UN agency pointed out that in the past, game-changing inventions like airplanes, antibiotics and semiconductors created booming industries and became "the root of long-lasting expansions in economic output".

In the same way, 3D printing for instance, with its ability to "print" anything from guns to cars, prosthetics and works of art, is predicted to transform our lives in coming decades as dramatically

as the Internet did before it.