Programme Director
CEO of Siemens Southern Africa
Members of the board of directors
Distinguished guests
It’s a pleasure to be here today.
Siemens has been doing business in South Africa for long enough now to be sustainable. In fact, more than sustainable. In fact, Siemens should be able to patent ‘sustainability’.
In South Africa we are pleased to be your hosts and to learn from you.
Siemens has been at the forefront of global technology development in information technology (IT) and related fields for many years. Siemens has also been in the forefront of innovative green technologies.
I understand that Siemens consider promoting green technologies and environmental awareness as a moral duty not only for the CEO and the board but also for every member of your company.
IT has been the growth centre of much science and technology over the last thirty years, so much so that the information revolution is often equated with science and technology itself. Information or technology has come to be that third factor of production, joining capital and labour.
Current and future green technologies hold great promise in terms of conserving energy and of revolutionising the transport sector.
In South Africa’s case, this is both an urgent and a complex matter. We are a middle-income country, according to United Nations (UN) classifications, but a low growing one. We are in the middle of promoting a new growth path in which the production of goods and services will hold a central place, of developing our infrastructure in which local production will play a greater role than before in procurement, and in executing a new industrial policy, one cluster of which is about promoting new areas of focus: especially in green and energy-saving industries, and in agro-processing linked to food security and food pricing imperatives.
We have a relatively sophisticated pool of scientists, whose outputs in terms of publications and patents did not appear to be growing over the last two decades. However, recent reports (Global Research Report: Africa) have indicated that we are stretching our lead both in Africa and in science and technology in particular. So this is good news and an indication that our human capital programmes, the research chairs initiative being our flagship, are showing results.
South Africa is doing better on the UN’s two knowledge indexes, the simple knowledge one that bundles together measures of education and human resources, the innovation system and information communication technology (ICT) and the knowledge economy index that includes the economic incentive and institutional regime.
Yet we are still a middle-income low-growing economy, way off the performance of Siemens’ mother country Germany, which ranks fourth in the world in the number of patents filed per person, and comes close to the top in international surveys of innovation. And Siemens makes a great contribution to that ranking.
Yet the work that our scientists are doing on a range of fronts is remarkable for an African country. Our work on the hydrogen engine is looking very promising. Even if we did not manage to show-case a hydrogen energy car during the World Cup, we do look as though the development of South Africa’s electric car will be ready before the next one.
Our plan for harnessing solar power, is far advanced, and bodes well our renewable energy programme that is currently being developed.
The story of Sasol, which took failed technology and turned it into a winner, is an inspiration to all scientists, innovators and inventors. Although we have given up on the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), we have not given up on the potential of nuclear energy. It is a key component of our new industrial policy in that sector where we focus on industries with long-term advanced capabilities.
We try not to pick specific winners in a sector, but we are committed to some sectors in which we have a natural advantage or where there is long-term possibility for widespread employment.
Our achievements in the field of astronomy have been truly spectacular. The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) has been a triumph, the MeerKAT is getting bigger and better, and we are sure to win the bid to host the envisaged largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array.
Our scientists in our universities and in our science councils excel in many disciplines, and we anticipate path-breaking announcements of new developments and proposals each month.
In closing, Siemens is a company that has done much careful thinking, and has come up with many sound initiatives. Like all of us here, Siemens seeks to create safer and healthier societies, cleaner environments and prosperous knowledge-driven economies across Africa.
Thank you.
