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Address by Minister Mosibudi Mangena at the G8/Unesco World Forum on “Education, Research and Innovation: New Partnership for Sustainable Development”.
2007-05-11 13:30
Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics,
Minister
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Chairperson, Professor Elaine El-Khawas from George Washington University in the US; Hon. Mr Fabio Mussi, Minister of University and Research, Italy; Hon. Mr Andrei Fursenko, Minister of Education and Science, Russia; Dr Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research; Prof. Carlo Rubbia, Nobel Laureate CERN, from Geneva; Prof. Martin Perl, Nobel Laureate, Stanford Linear Accelerator, USA; Honourable Ministers; Government Officials, Entrepreneurs and Academics; Ladies and Gentlemen If ever a country needed innovative thinking, it is South Africa. And that is why my government is so encouraging to innovation. In a strange way, the acceleration of innovation through technology almost coincided with the advent of democracy in my country, and the subsequent experience has been both exhilarating and frustrating. South Africa is very anxious to create an environment which encourages and enables innovation and innovative thinking. Accordingly, government plays a formative role in research and innovation through developing and approving policy, legislation and regulatory frameworks; setting the overall national agenda, and creating an enabling environment for research and innovation to thrive. Immediately after the inception of the democratic government in 1994, the process to revamp the Science and Technology administrative apparatus in the entire country was set in motion. Since then, we have put forward a whole range of mechanisms to encourage innovation in the private sector, government research institutes and the higher education sector. The National Research and Development Strategy has been an enabling framework for South Africa’s innovation system to prioritise economic sectors with growth potential such as Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Information Technology and Space Technology. The strategy has enabled government to increase investment in human capital to transform and fill the skills gaps identified in key sectors. In the same way, more focused sector strategies such as the Biotechnology Strategy, the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy and the Nanotechnology Strategy were formulated. We identified a need to enhance the research infrastructure in order to create a knowledge workforce for advanced technology businesses, and so support the country’s future competitiveness and its ability to achieve an improved quality of life. Clearly, the provision of public funding is a key component of my government’s responsibility in creating an enabling environment for R&D, but making the right decisions about the disbursement of these funds is critical. In order to track our investments, we have initiated a process whereby a national R&D survey is conducted every year. This year’s Innovation Survey is the first to be completed. The 2004/5 R&D Survey indicates that South Africa’s R&D expenditure, as a percentage of GDP, has increased from 0.68% in 1997 to approximately 0.87% in 2004. This is against the backdrop of a healthy GDP growth. The business sector accounts for 56% of R&D performance, followed by the higher education sector with 21%, with the government sector contributing 21% of the total R&D. This is not a figure that compares well with the OECD countries whose average expenditure on R&D is approximately 2.3%. We are aware that we must harness this public expenditure to attract private sector funding for R&D, if we are to achieve a target of 1% of GDP spend on R&D in the next financial year. The link between government and industry is crucial. Our current human capital programmes have now introduced have now introduced Research Chairs with industry partnerships to strengthen this linkage. The first group of scientists appointed as university research chairs, an initiative that aims to attract top minds and reverse our declining research output, was announced last year. Apart from generating new knowledge and increasing research outputs in patents and publications, the scientists are to train PhD and Masters students, and attend to the fault-lines we have long identified in our system. Our aim is to create 56 research chairs by 2008, and 210 by 2010. In order to address the challenge of insufficient human capital in science, engineering and technology, the training of PhDs is a key goal. In the context of a growing economy, and a recognized skills shortage, appropriate funding is essential to attract appropriately skilled individuals into the research programmes of higher education – otherwise the aim of increased numbers of PhD graduates will not be realised. THRIP fosters industry-academia collaboration by subsidising industry research conducted by students. Many successful enterprises have been created through this programme. THRIP is a good example of how to leverage funds to attract funding for university research. Not only has it brought more money for research, it has also successfully funded hundreds of postgraduate students. Since its inception 16 years ago, THRIP has made an important contribution to skills development, supporting on average 2 400 tertiary students each year. Its funding has now reached the billion Rand mark – an amount that has been matched and exceeded, by industry. Another initiative is the private sector R&D Tax Incentive introduced last year. This allows private companies to claim 150% of the expenditure incurred on scientific and technological R&D, as well as accelerated depreciation of capital assets used for R&D. As you well know, the main effect of a tax incentive is to increase the after-tax return of the investment to the firm, so that it becomes more profitable to make that particular investment. Tax incentives therefore not only have the potential to attract R&D funds from abroad, but also affect positively the emigration of R&D capital abroad, and give incentives to local industries to increase their spending on R&D. There are a number of other fresh initiatives. One of these is the Centre for High Performance Computing. The facility is intended to foster research geared towards addressing grand challenges in science, engineering, medicine, and humanities that are complex and large-scale with broad scientific and environmental or economic aspects. Here the goal is to create an enabling science and technology environment, particularly through setting up national facilities, which will support cutting–edge research, and play a significant role in creating an enabling environment for advanced manufacturing industries, biotechnology and space science, as well as developmental issues such as infectious diseases. Ladies and gentlemen, let me now turn my attention to research and innovation. The Innovation Fund addresses problems that are serious enough to impede socio-economic development or affect the country’s ability to compete in products and services. Through the Innovation Fund, and the Bio Regional Innovation Centres (BRICS), my department has focused its efforts in establishing the institutional infrastructure, legislation and policy framework that is needed to integrate the process of knowledge creation and its subsequent commercialisation, for national benefit. Amongst others, the fund promotes technological innovation via consortia of expertise drawn from both public and private sectors. The instruments of the Innovation Fund are specifically tailored to foster the pursuit of high-risk technologies by business entities by creating partnerships that draw on technical expertise in the public research enterprise. The incentive to the business partners is the equal sharing of the R&D costs of the market-oriented research agenda. I must also mention Tshumisano. Established in 2002, the mandate of Tshumisano is to provide support for the Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME) sector through its Technology Stations Programme (TSP). One of the aims of this programme is to strengthen technological innovation activities and related skills upgrading to increase the relative competitiveness of SMME’s in targeted sectors. These sectors include automotive, agri-foods processing, electronics, metal value adding, chemicals, metal casting, composite and moulded plastic. These Technology Stations are based at various Universities of Technology across the country. The approach is a two-way learning process, in which SMMEs improve their operations through technology assimilation and upgrading their innovation capabilities. And for the Universities of Technology this process enriches their teaching and learning activities by improving their equipment and their real world understanding of the industry challenges. Distinguished Friends, in just over a dozen years or so of our democratic rule, we have had to address what our National R&D Strategy identifies as the “Innovation Chasm” - the gap that exists between the knowledge generators and the market. And one of the things my department is proposing to do to narrow or close this Innovation Gap is to build an institution to be called the Foundation for Technological Innovation, (FTI). This will be an institution with the competency to assist our National System of Innovation to mine the existing body of knowledge to develop technology-based services and products that could be commercialised and diffused through the economy. Let me conclude my address by drawing your attention to one of our government’s skills development initiatives relating to science and technology. The Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) and the Sector Training Authorities (SETAs) are other strategies and tactics that have been implemented to address various shortages of skills. In particular, JIPSA, as a framework, is aimed at addressing the shortage of urgently needed skills. It targets and mobilises unemployed graduates, retired experts and foreign experts, and deploys them into our economy. Through this process, knowledge is shared and transferred. All these programmes and initiatives are carried out in partnership with business, labour, academia, research councils, higher education institutions and other knowledge producers as part of developing our National System of Innovation. We are determined to realise our mission to develop, coordinate and manage a National System of Innovation that will make us achieve a critical mass of the required human capital, realise sustainable economic growth and improve the general quality of life of the people of South Africa, including our regional neighbours and the continent of Africa. I thank the Forum for the opportunity to update you on these developments. |
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