Ambassador Fust, Chairperson of the African Innovation Foundation Board,
Dr Iqbal Surve, Executive Chairperson: Sekunjalo Group,
Prof. Walter Baets, Director of the UCT Graduate School of Business,
Dr Francois Bonnici, Director: Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
Members of the media,
Distinguished guests.
Thank you for the invitation to come and speak to you this evening. Initiatives such as this are crucial in our efforts to catalyse innovation, not only in South Africa, but in Africa as a whole. Tonight we celebrate Africa's finest innovators.
According to The Economist, Africa as a region ranks as the second-fastest growing region in the world, with seven of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world. This growth can only be sustained through innovation and ensuring that innovation addresses the challenges that still afflict our continent.
As Africans, we must develop solutions to address our own unique challenges, while positioning ourselves to compete globally with the rest of the world. It is indeed important that we foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly among our youth. Over 49,4% of the population in South Africa is under the age of 25 years.
With the unprecedented growth in many sectors – in particular mobile and information and communication technology – there has never been a better time in history for Africans, particularly the youth, to develop solutions that can address a range of challenges.
South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology recognises the importance of meaningful public-private partnerships in our National System of Innovation. These partnerships enhance our capacity to provide innovative solutions to the most pressing social challenges facing our country and continent, such as unemployment, poverty, service delivery, health and, in particular, the scourge of diseases such as HIV and AIDS, TB, diabetes and malaria.
It is for this reason that I am delighted to see that the African Innovation Foundation has not only partnered with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in conceptualising the awards programme, but it has also joined with the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the University of Cape Town (UCT) Graduate School of Business and the Sekunjalo Development Foundation to host this gala event. I am sure that this partnership will grow from strength to strength.
Please allow me to share some key milestones in our approach to innovation in South Africa.
Our national parliament unanimously endorsed a National Development Plan (NDP) last year. This comprehensive plan recognises science, technology and innovation as central to our efforts to achieve higher economic growth rates and ultimately improve the lives of our citizens.
It seeks to ensure that South Africa's public policy fosters socio-economic growth and industry-science linkages through increased investments in research, human capital development, intellectual property and trade in high-technology industries.
These objectives are to be achieved as part of the country's transformation to a knowledge-based economy, characterised by an enabling environment in which the production, exploitation and dissemination of knowledge play an increased role in enhancing productivity and driving growth and development.
Our various policy and strategy documents have identified the existence of what was called an "innovation chasm" in our system. These policy documents mooted the establishment of an instrument to provide greater coordination within the National System of Innovation to ensure that we effectively address the challenges posed by this chasm. In 2008 we passed legislation to establish such instrument, and this led to the establishment of a new institutioin which we called the Technology Innovation Agency, or TIA.
In establishing TIA we envisaged a public institution that would strengthen the country's capacity to translate local research and development into technology-based products and services for socio-economic development.
TIA's primary focus is to provide "early" and second-stage funding, combined with non-financial support, taking into account that existing funding institutions typically focus on late stage funding, such as the Industrial Development Corporation and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
TIA is intended to build capabilities within the National System of Innovation to better understand business risk, conceptualise appropriate financing instruments, and provide broad technological innovation incubation support and coordination across all sectors of the economy. The creation of strategic local and international partnerships by TIA is essential to leverage capital inflow for technological development, technology transfer and translation of research results and intellectual property to useful products and services.
A discussion about innovation would not be complete without talking about intellectual property, or IP. We might reflect today on what our National Research and Development Strategy of 2002 said over a decade ago: At present, there is little appreciation of intellectual property as an instrument of wealth creation in South Africa.
We realised that the capacity to generate and effectively secure IP is important for enhancing economic growth, development and competitiveness. More particularly, we recognised the importance of developing an enabling policy and legislative framework when it comes to IP generated from publicly financed research.
Through an extensive consultation process, we developed the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act. Through this Act, we have established the National Intellectual Property Management Office to develop national and institutional capacity through Offices of Technology Transfer to aid researchers in securing and commercialising their inventions. The Act also provides clarity on the management of revenue and benefit-sharing generated from the commercialisation of IP.
Our department has also partnered with the Da Vinci Institute of Technology Management through their Technology Top 100 awards programme, in order to pilot an internship programme for unemployed science, engineering and technology graduates.
This public-private partnership initiative has grown over the years, and succeeded in the placement of 50 interns in technology-intensive South African companies in 2012. The programme aims to equip the graduates with a set of skills that will allow them to compete more effectively in a knowledge-based economy.
To indicate where we are with regard to innovation and what challenges still remain, the latest annual Innovation Survey results are instructive:
- 65,4% of South African enterprises are engaged in innovation activities and have technological innovation-based products and processes.
- South Africa's rate of technological innovation compares favourably with the European Union average of 39%, although it must be noted that their rates range from 16% in Latvia to 63% in Germany.
- About 48,2% of South African enterprises introduced new or significantly improved products to the markets.
- Innovative enterprises spent approximately R57 billion on innovation activities (about 1,7% of turnover of all enterprises).
Our R&D tax incentive, which provides a 150% tax rebate, is intended to increase this expenditure.
The Innovation Survey also reveals that 4,1% of innovative enterprises received public money. Only 2,3% of enterprises applied for patents; 4,3% registered industrial designs; 11,3% registered trademarks; and 5,1% claimed copyright protection.
From these numbers we can see that there are areas in which we are making good progress and areas in which we need to work harder. However, I am confident that, with the instruments that I have mentioned, together with the support of programmes such as the Innovation Prize for Africa, we will be able to deliver on our mandate of managing the National System of Innovation to ensure that we are able to harvest the socio-economic benefits for South Africa.
Naturally, I am pleased to note that five of the 10 finalists in this year's awards are from South Africa, but I should stress that we are not in competition with our sister countries on the African continent – our destinies are intertwined and we grow of stumble together.
In closing, the author Scott Berkun made the following observation, which I think aptly illustrates the role that innovation plays in our technological evolution:
"The refrigerator, the laser, and the dishwasher were disasters for decades before enough of the cultural and technological barriers were eliminated through various insights, transforming the products into true business innovations.
"Big thoughts are fun to romanticize, but it's many small insights coming together that bring big ideas into the world."
To all innovators present here tonight: Persevere in what you do; your efforts are the foundation of our future.
To the winners: Congratulations!
To our visitors: I hope that you enjoy our beautiful city and country. Thank you very much for having me and have a wonderful evening.
