Welby asks tech giants to help poorer nations

TECH giants such as Elon Musk’s firm, Tesla, should share their knowledge with poorer countries, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said: “If these God-given benefits of scientific and technological wisdom are confined to a small minority of the planet, that can only lead to greater … inequality and inequities of power.”

He said the growth of major firms “is a very good thing” for world trade, adding: “I just like to see it spread well around the world so far more countries … have that sort of motive and driving power within their own country, for the good of their people.”

Asked for examples of firms, he said: “Well, the obvious ones would be some of the high-tech ones which the genius of their founders, people like Tesla, has created huge amounts of jobs and will continue to do so [and] Apple and all the rest of them.

“And those are examples to be admired in the way that they have developed from nothing through entrepreneurial skills of a very high order indeed. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if Africa and other parts of the world can produce equally strong developers, jobs and trade.”