Pandor pushes innovation
2010-09-07 13:31
Cape Town - Science and technology minister Naledi Pandor has said that while many South African companies are engaged in new developments, companies show little interest in applying for public funding for innovation.
"The South African Innovation Survey (2005) revealed that the proportion of South African companies engaged in innovative activities - new to country or company if not new to the world - compares favourably with the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average.
"Yet not a lot of innovation is publicly funded. This is not only true of South Africa, but also of most OECD countries," Pandor said in her keynote speech at the Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications conference in Stellenbosch.
She said that new technologies have an impact in the socio-economic development of the country and benefits extended beyond the commercial payoffs, but added that competition perhaps negatively influenced private firms from seeking public funding for innovation.
Innovative breakthroughs
"Government's role in innovation is threefold. First of all, it has to provide the building blocks of innovation and by that I mean fund basic research in our universities, train skilled scientists, engineers and technologists, and provide the necessary infrastructure in laboratories and cyber networks.
"Second, the government has to create the best regulatory environment for the private sector so as to encourage investment and maintain competitive markets and nurture entrepreneurs.
"Third, government funding has to be a catalyst for innovative breakthroughs in national priorities. We cannot leave this to the market."
The minister said that there was scope for private companies to partner with the government in initiatives that can be successful. She cited the example of mobile chat platform MXit.
"There have been stunning publicly funded innovations. MXit, the chat utility, is apparently the most profitable social network interface in the world. It came out of Stellenbosch University."
Recently the department of science and technology had to cut programmes due to budget cuts, but Pandor seemd upbeat that the department could accelerate development.
"When the DST introduced its ten-year innovation plan in 2008, it set targets by which to measure whether its ambitious aims had been achieved. One target was to double the share of R&D spending to 2% of GDP.
"Another was to expand the South African share of global research outputs to 1%. Another was to expand the number of science, engineering and technology graduates to 450 000."
Open sourced software
Recently, scientists at the CSIR developed a wireless mesh network that will allow people in rural communities to access broadband. This was funded in part by the department and Pandor said that there was growing partnership in the programme with small businesses.
"This project is a technology demonstrator which seeks to expand and deploy the R&D and innovation outputs in affordable broadband technology using WMN on a larger scale - targeting Dinaledi Schools and other government facilities such as clinics, Thusong Service Centres, libraries and police stations."
Pandor also emphasised the government's commitment to open sourced software and there have been initiatives to accelerate the development of open sourced platforms like Digital Doorway computer systems which aims improve computer literacy in communities where citizens can learn by experiment.
"The government will ensure all government content, and content developed using government resources, is made Open Content, unless analysis on specific content shows that proprietary licensing or confidentiality is substantially beneficial.
"What we need now more than anything else are leaders - IT Leaders - accomplished experts who know the ropes, who have the skills, the will and the vision to take us forward."
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