Remarks by Naledi Pandor, MP, Minister of Science and Technology, at the second BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting, Brasilia
Minister Aldo Rebelo of the FederalRepublic of Brazil,
Minister Harsh Vardhan of the Republic of India,
Deputy Minister Ludmila Ogorodova of the Russian Federation,
Vice Minister Cao Jianlin of the People's Republic of China,
Ambassadors of BRICS member countries,
Distinguished BRICS country delegations,
Ladies and gentlemen.
I would like to thank Minister Aldo Rebelo of the Federal Republic of Brazil for hosting this event. It's a pleasure to be here. South Africa remains strongly committed to promoting cooperation in science, technology and innovation as one of the pillars within the BRICS partnership. We also remain committed to promote joint partnerships between the BRICS nations and other strategic partners in Africa.
Building on the work achieved at the 2014 Ministerial in South Africa, the BRICS memorandum of understanding that we will sign today will serve as a strategic intergovernmental framework. We can all be collectively proud that the memorandum will be one of the first thematic intergovernmental agreements concluded between the BRICS partners.
Rightly, science, technology and innovation are showing the way where others should lead. The main objective of the memorandum will be to strengthen cooperation in science, technology and innovation, and to address common global and regional socio-economic challenges using shared experiences and complementarities.
As you know, South Africa will be leading our cooperation in astronomy. Astronomy is arguably the flagship science and technology success story of democratic South Africa. South Africa will be hosting, with Australia, the Square Kilometer Array, the world’s biggest radio telescope and one of the signature global science projects of the 21st century.
We are currently building theMeerKAT, the SKA precursor that will eventually be integrated into the SKA, but until such time it will in its own right be one the most powerful radio telescopes in the world.
The world’s leading radio astronomers, including from BRICS countries, have already been allocated time for pioneering observation missions to be conducted with MeerKAT. These observations will expand our understanding of the universe and will be frontier science in the truest sense of the word.
As Deputy Minister Ogorodova and Vice Minister Jianlin will recall from their visit to the SKA site in South Africa, our country does not only offer ideal geographic and climatic conditions for the construction and operation of large-scale astronomy facilities, but has developed and is rapidly expanding related science and engineering expertise.
The work done by the MeerKAT engineers in developing computing solutions for the telescope has attracted the attention of major multinational companies. South Africa is now actively involved in global science efforts to manage and exploit big data.
These are the types of partnerships we are eager to foster within the BRICS context. Already China and India are part of the SKA project, and we hope Brazil and the Russian Federation will soon join us.
In conclusion, may I recall that South Africa continues to play a leadership role in the science, technology and innovation programmes of the African Union –we were the founding chair of the African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology and over the past decade have invested significantly in pan-African initiatives such as the African Laser Centre and the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
We also have numerous bilateral science and technology partnerships with partner countries across the African continent as we seek to harness our forces to implement the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa or STISA.
This strategy is Africa’s comprehensive new blueprint for putting science, technology and innovation at work in the service of development, approved by the African Union’s Heads of State.
Our BRICS partners of course have their own substantial cooperation with other African nations, but we stand ready to contribute our extensive relations and experience of cooperation in support of BRICS cooperation with the rest of Africa. I have no doubt we are on the eve of an exciting new era for science, technology and innovation in Africa –and our partnership will play an important part.
Honourable Ministers and distinguished guests, I wish to conclude by expressing my deep desire that this second BRICS Science, Technology, and Innovation Ministerial Meeting will lay a solid foundation for our shared goal of promoting equitable growth and sustainable development throughout the world.
It should be our goal at this meeting to undertake the necessary preparatory work, to ensure when we meet later this year in Russia we will already be able to review some of the early successes of progress under the 2015-2020 Work Plan.
I look forward to in anticipation to an exciting day of engagements.
