Programme Director
Mr Nils Jansons
Ladies and gentlemen
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to our beautiful country and to the International Cooperation National Contact Points (INCONTACT) conference. We are, of course, most delighted that the organisers chose South Africa to host this important conference.
As you all know, in just a few weeks Africa will be hosting yet another important international occasion, called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP17, where the nations of the world will debate and deliberate, and hopefully make wise and responsible decisions on the serious issues of climate change in Durban. This is good for Africa’s efforts to collaborate with the rest of the world in using science and technology to harness economic development.
In the era of globalisation, collaboration between countries and regions is not just one of the options we need to pursue, but is actually a condition without which no nation could hope to survive the current global economic development challenges. It is in this context that South Africa enjoys and values the strong long-term relationship we have with the European Union (EU).
As a result of the many positive spin-offs flowing from this arrangement, this relationship was escalated to a "Strategic Partnership" in 2007. The South Africa-European Union (SA-EU) agreement on science and technology was signed in 1996, and South Africa has since benefited significantly from the EU’s investment in our National System of Innovation.
South Africa attaches great importance to intra-continental, or south-south, relations. That is why supporting African- European Union (EU) cooperation is also an important component of South Africa’s relationship with the EU.
Indeed, South Africa, through the Department of Science and Technology, remains committed to supporting all initiatives aimed at strengthening African collaboration with the EU on science and technology. We are currently involved in various EU-funded projects, and I can mention just a few:
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CAAST-Net, the Network for the Coordination and Advancement of Sub-Saharan Africa-European Union Science and Technology Cooperation, aimed at facilitating Africa-EU cooperation, supporting Africa-EU policy dialogues and promoting African participation in EU programmes.
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INCONTACT-One World, aimed at networking and information sharing between European and third country National Contact Points, with a view to increasing international cooperation in science and technology.
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Information Society Technologies – or IST – Africa, which provides a platform for sharing ideas on the development and implementation of Information and Communication Technology policies among African countries, and raising awareness in Europe of African Information and Communication Technology research and development capacity.
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AeroAfrica-EU, aimed at facilitating African-European collaboration in aeronautics research.
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PAERIP, Promoting African-European Research Infrastructure Partnerships.
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ERAFRICA, developing African-European joint collaboration for Science and Technology.
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ESASTAP, the European South African Science and Technology Advancement Programme.
It must be stressed that we do not take our relationship with the EU for granted. Indeed, we appreciate the opportunities presented by EU programmes, which give our researchers opportunities to be involved in world-class research and afford our country a golden opportunity to benchmark ourselves against international researchers.
This helps our country to accelerate its objective of transforming our economy from a resource-based to a knowledge-based one. There is not a shadow of doubt in our minds that this is the way to go if our economy is to improve its competitiveness.
Hosting this conference in Africa is a good signal from our EU partners insofar as it demonstrates the seriousness with which they regard Africa as partner. But that is just one way of looking at this partnership.
Most importantly, it is an opportunity for our African researchers and policy-makers to build, strengthen and maintain links among themselves. It is on the basis of such concrete links that we will be in a position to make the best of our relationship with our EU counterparts.
South Africa views global science and technology cooperation as essential to addressing challenges of climate change, combating major diseases such as HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and achieving food and water security on the continent.
East Africa is currently experiencing its worst drought in sixty years, with more than 11 million people at risk. Droughts cannot be avoided, but famines can, but only with good planning, disaster management policies in place, and strong cooperation between countries.
The best way of to measure the success of our international engagements is by looking at how much these have assisted in addressing our developmental challenges; as long we remain clear though: our destiny and decisions remain first and foremost in our own hands.
Science and technology can never be a substitute for good policies, and clean, effective and accountable governance. It is a potentially powerful tool, but a tool can only be as good as the hand that wields it.
One of the challenges faced by our science and technology ministries and research institutions is to ensure that our scientific research communities respond to our developmental needs and global challenges.
I trust you will come up with ways of achieving more focused research and scientific endeavour, as you continue to implement INCONTACT and other EU projects.
It is our sincere hope that our EU partners will continue with the good work they are doing in contributing to building African capacity with regard to Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) understanding, and improving the ability of FP7 National Contact Points to carry out their responsibility of promoting FP7 participation in their countries.
On this note, allow me to wish you well with this conference, and I hope that it will provide you with an invaluable networking opportunity to enable you to find common areas for Africa-EU collaboration.
Thank you.
