P Mlambo-Ngcuka: Meeting with Presidents of universities in
Japan

19 April 2006

Cabinet Ministers,
Deputy Ministers,
Ambassador Ngubane,
Professor Masuo Aizawa, President of the Tokyo Institute of Technology,
Professor Njabulo Ndebele, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape
Town,
Presidents of Japanese universities,
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is by no means a twist of fate that I am in Japan within a month from the
time when the South African Government launched the Joint Initiative on
Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA). Meeting with presidents of Japanese
universities in Japan brings into my mind the words of our President Thabo
Mbeki where he said, “I am confident that Japan has many lessons to offer many
of us as we strive to create conditions that will ensure that all of humanity
lives the life fit for humans.”

South Africa has to overcome the shortage of suitable skilled labour for us
to realise an annual growth rate of at least 6% of the gross domestic product
(GDP) between 2010 and 2014. JIPSA is South Africa’s concrete step to support
the alignment of colleges and universities in their work of producing graduates
that we can employ who meet the demand and needs of employers in the public and
private sector. Even then JIPSA is only one of the interventions that seek to
address the skills challenges in South Africa. Our schools, universities,
technical colleges are our core institutions and skills generators.

We acknowledge that the single greatest impediment to South Africa’s shared
economic growth and development, as well as private investment programmes, is
our shortage of skills at all levels such as engineers, scientists,
financial-personnel, project managers, information technology (IT) specialists
and skilled technical employees such as artisans and information technology
technicians and local government technical and other managers that are
critically needed as the economy moves into higher gear and for service
delivery.

One of the fundamental pillars of JIPSA is the contribution of the
Department of Foreign Affairs and embassies in sourcing and attracting scarce
skills from the international community to assist Government to train people in
foreign academic institutions and for international placements where South
Africa can train people through placements in foreign private companies and
governments as well as government related institutions.

It was my wish to meet you today mainly to consider opportunities for
co-operation between Japanese and South African universities in human resource
and skills development sphere. I would like to share with you the priority
areas that South Africa has identified for co-operation with Japanese
universities:

* High-level engineering and planning skills for the ‘network industries’,
transport, communications and energy all at the core of national infrastructure
programme
* City, urban and regional planning and engineering skills desperately needed
by local municipalities
* Artisan and technical skills, with priority attention to those needs for
national infrastructure development
* Management and planning skills in education, health and in
municipalities
* Teacher training for mathematics, science, information and communication
technologies (ICT) and language competence in public education
* Specific skills needed by the sectors starting with tourism and business
process outsourcing (BPO) and cross cutting skills needed by all sectors
especially finance; project managers and managers in general
* Skills relevant to local economic development needs of municipalities,
especially developmental economists.

Japan and South Africa have established the "Japan-South Africa Partnership
Forum" co-chaired by Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs to strengthen
co-operation in international affairs, trade and investment, economic
co-operation, science and technology and cultural exchanges. I recommend the
establishment of a similar forum for South African and Japanese universities to
facilitate partnership in human resource and skills development in the context
of JIPSA.

The forum for universities can be held annually in Japan and South Africa on
a rotational basis to help achieve the following objectives:

* To increase flows of scientific knowledge and resources between South
Africa and Japan through participation in joint education, research and
training programmes
* To share the best practice in education, research and training through
exchange of students, researchers and managers between South Africa and
Japan
* To facilitate the participation of South Africa and Japan as significant
players in the international science and technology arena.

Though heavily funded by the government, all South African public higher
education institutions are autonomous, reporting to their own councils rather
than government.

Two of the most important funding instruments available for the higher
education sector are the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and the
National Research Foundation (NRF). Since its establishment in 1999, NRF
remains the main government-supported form of funding for postgraduate research
in South Africa.

I believe, in South Africa there is greater room for the private sector to
support and influence higher education inputs and outputs.

NRF and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) concluded a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in March 2005. As a result of this MoU, JSPS
and NRF have already approved funding for four research collaboration projects
involving the following Japanese institutions: Nagoya City University, Tohoku
University, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute and Chiba University
together with the following South African institutions: University of the
Witwatersrand, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, University of
Stellenbosch and the CSIR. These institutions are collaborating in the areas of
biotechnology, infectious diseases, ICTs and food sciences.

With effect from 1 March 2007, a simplified set of rules for the tax
treatment of bursaries and scholarships provided by employers will be
introduced in South Africa. To encourage businesses to increase investment in
technology and innovation, the South African Government will increase the
deduction for current research and development expenditure from 100% to 150%
and a more favourable regime for depreciation of R&D capital expenditure is
proposed.

We pride ourselves in the remarkable position that there is no other place
in the world where you can study the southern skies as well as you can do in
Southern Africa. President Thabo Mbeki officially opened the South African
Large Telescope (SALT) in South Africa in November 2005.

SALT is the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere and represents a
joint venture between seven countries, 11 organisations and 12 universities.
South Africa has also submitted a bid to host the Square Kilometre Array
Telescope (SKA). This has involved building a 1 per cent SKA demonstrator
called the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT).

This process has enabled South African industry and academia to participate
in the technology development process. I welcome the existing collaboration in
the field of astronomy between Nagoya University in Japan and the South African
Astronomical Observatory.

South Africa continues to lead in the fields of anthropology and
palaeontology due to its unique heritage in fossil remains, from the earliest
vertebrates to human origins. The Sterkfontein World Heritage Site in South
Africa is the richest site in the world in terms of the number of hominid
specimens. All these offer exciting opportunities for collaboration with our
institutions of higher learning and students while at the same time offering
unique tourism experiences.

World-class research in the field of palaeo-anthropology is currently
conducted in South Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand, the Transvaal
Museum, the National Museum in Bloemfontein and the University of Cape
Town.

The world renowned South African scientist on human evolution and analysis
of early hominid fossils, Professor Emeritus Philip Tobias of the University of
the Witwatersrand presented lectures at the University of Tokyo, Kyoto
University as well as at the Aichi World Expo 2005 in Japan on “the
Significance of the Fossil Hominid Discoveries at the Cradle of Humanity World
Heritage Site.”

There are limited places in the world where you can study infectious
diseases as well as you can do in Southern Africa.

The Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases of the University of Pretoria
and the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute of the South African Agricultural
Research Council (ARC) for example have sequenced and annotated the complete
genome of the bacterium Ehrilchia ruminatium, the causative agent of the deadly
Heartwater Disease that has been destroying cattle, sheep and goat herds
throughout Sub-Saharan Africa for centuries.

The work done in this area represents the first entire sequencing of any
organism that has been done in Africa. We hope this breakthrough will help
advance frontiers of veterinary medicine.

I also welcome the support of the NRF to the research collaboration between
the University of Venda for Science and Technology and the School of Medicine,
Tohoku University in Japan on their study of the antimicrobial activities of
local medicinal plants against HIV and opportunistic bacterial as well as
parasitic pathogens incriminated in HIV and AIDS cases.

The southern African sub-continent has the richest temperate flora in the
world by far and is one of the most diverse regions of the world. Moreover, it
has multiple hotspots where considerable concentrations of endemic plants are
found.

Here at the southern tip of Africa, on less than 2.5% of the global land
surface, about 10% of the plant species of the world occur. Indeed, with about
24 000 species recorded for South Africa and some of its neighbours, the
country is home to the most diverse and species-rich temperate flora of the
world.

The biodiversity found in Southern Africa offers a wide range of
opportunities. A good example is South Africa’s CSIR patent that followed
research and development of the appetite suppressant molecule in the Hoodia
cactus, native to South Africa.

Clinical trials continue internationally on the product, which if successful
will form the basis of a new obesity treatment. Commercial benefits are
anticipated to arise from the potential commercial success of this
technology.

South Africa is endowed with several mineral resources and Japan is the
major importer in Asia of minerals from South Africa, particularly platinum and
aluminium.

For many years the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan
has been collaborating with the University of Limpopo, University of
Witwatersrand, CSIR and Mintek on various areas of high temperature materials
including the development of platinum group metal-based alloys for high
temperature applications.

I wish to bring to your attention the words of Prime Minister Koizumi at the
World Summit in South Africa where he said, “Japan, a country poor in natural
resources, has grown to be what it is today on the strength of its human
resources.”

That is what we have come to learn more about here and to seek concrete
relations with each of your institutions. I am very happy that Professor
Ndebele will sign an agreement that leads us to that direction. We seek an
exchange with students, academics, public servants and our small, medium and
micro-enterprises (SMMEs) and people especially Black Economic Empowerment
(BEE) practitioners. We look forward to a successful stay in the next few
days.

Japan has indeed many lessons to offer South Africa as we strive to create
conditions that will ensure that we achieve an annual growth rate of at least
6% of the GDP.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
19 April 2006