Honourable Ministers,
Representatives of the African Union Commission and European Commission,
Representatives of governments, the private sector, researchers and civil society,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
Information Society Technologies (IST) Africa is an important initiative for South Africa, and for Africa.
Sub-Saharan Africans are in a particularly difficult situation. The majority of sub-Saharan African countries are not only poor, but their science and technology institutions are among the weakest in the world.
To our credit, a number of high-profile initiatives in recent years have indicated a continent re-awakening. There has been an emergence of interest in and concern about science and technology. There has also been a growing appreciation of the role of science and technology in socio-economic development as well as a growing awareness of the need for capacity building in this area. Yet we still lag behind the rest of the world in the provision of infrastructure critical to science and technology research.
This is not because Africans are unwilling to invest in science and technology, but because we have to carry out a complicated balancing act in meeting a wide range of needs with limited resources. We need to renew our aging economic and social infrastructure, to provide quality education to our young people and to work towards a better future.
While we focus our energies on resolving these problems, the digital divide continues to widen between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world.
IST-Africa is an initiative that will enable us, through partnerships with the private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and our communities, to confront this ever-increasing divide. It’s been clear since the first IST-Africa conference was held in South Africa that our continent is keen to confront these challenges.
The recognition by our heads of state and governments of the importance of science and technology, especially information and communication technology (ICT), as one of the cornerstones of the Africa-EU strategy is significant, but there is still plenty of hard work to be done by both Africa and Europe.
The issue of funding is critical and needs to be a shared.
While the support offered by our European partners is valuable, this funding will only have a sustainable impact if African countries step up their own investment in science and technology.
It was for this reason that African Heads of State agreed a few years ago to work towards having research and development spending at one percent of their gross domestic products (GDP) �" a goal we must continue to pursue, notwithstanding our many other spending priorities.
It’s also important that we leverage financing from the European Development Fund more effectively, specifically in support of the S&T partnership.
Since the Africa-EU Summit held in Lisbon in 2007, South Africa has been fully committed to the implementation of the Africa-EU Science, Information Society and Space Partnership. We are aggressively investing in the capacity to create and diffuse new knowledge.
Following global trends, we are investing in the modernisation of research and development infrastructure, and in particular, new instruments and facilities (like the Centre for High Performance Computing) as key components in the drive to ensure that there is the requisite capacity to generate new knowledge.
Through the Centre for High Performance Computing, we hope for the development of nodes and partnerships with higher education and research institutions as well as industry in South Africa, the rest of Africa and the rest of the world.
The centre is also crucial for the development of the country and the continent’s much-needed human capital. It will support the exchange of data between us and our partners, as well as research initiated by bodies such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the National Bioinformatics Network and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems.
We are convinced that North-South cooperation between Africa and Europe will be enhanced, as will South-South partnerships, for example, in applications such as climate change and the Southern Oceans research between Brazil, India and South Africa.
Science knows no frontiers, as shown by the participation of African scientists in the European Union’s excellence-driven, highly competitive Seventh Framework Programme. The success of our partnership will depend on increasing Africa’s contribution to global science as, I must stress, an equal partner.
The European Union Framework Programme has also given us a platform to create opportunities to enhance African ICT research capacity by collaborating with European researchers. South Africa, with countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, to name a few, are leading actors in the implementation of the Network for the Coordination and Advancement of sub-Saharan Africa-EU Science and Technology Cooperation project, better known as CAAST-Net.
This initiative is supported by the EU FP7 and aims to add particular value to Africa and Europe’s identification of joint research and development priorities and developing implementation scenarios linked to the Joint Strategy, specifically with regard to harnessing support for the implementation of Africa’s Consolidated Plan of Action.
My department hosted the General Assembly of CAAST-Net earlier this week, next door to this venue, at the Hilton Hotel.
The report I received shows the enthusiasm that exists between African and European partners to strengthen dialogue on mutual areas of collaboration. The proposed expansion of CAAST-Net will see deepened involvement of African Regional Economic Communities in the Africa-EU mutual research prioritisation and policy dialogue is indeed welcome.
Honourable ministers, and distinguished guests, as this event grows in stature from one year to the next, it’s my belief that we will succeed in narrowing the digital divide, with the discussions held this week an important step on the way.
On that hopeful note, ladies and gentlemen I am honoured on behalf of South Africa and her people, to have had the opportunity to address this meeting. We look forward to more EU-African policy discussions and research collaborations.
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
21 May 2010
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za)
