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28 October 2008

Programme Director: Professor Nesamvuni
Director General (DG) of Limpopo Provincial Government: Dr NH Manzini
Academics and research practitioners
Senior government officials
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Allow me on this momentous occasion of the first ever Limpopo Research and Development Summit to wish all delegates and numerous guests here present a wonderful day of fruit deliberations.

I am confident that this summit will bring out the best in all of us who are concerned about the worrying state of research and development in our province and the country as a whole. Obviously our desire is to see this engagement succeeding in bringing out to the surface the core issues which are at the heart of socio-economic justice and economic growth in this province and beyond.

What then is Research and Development (R&D) in our context?

R&D is defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of (hu) man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications".

Others have defined it as a process of enquiry or investigation into new or improved products: in business and industry or the work of investigating improved processes, products and services and of developing new ones.

What is starkly common in all these definitions is the underlying quest for enquiry and the continuous search for perfection of what already exists.

Perhaps what is important for the purposes of this engagement is the fact that research and development is identified in our Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) as one area which is regarded as highly critical for the success of our strategy. This therefore suggests that nothing will come out of the strategy without necessary innovation or continuous improvement in all the seven industrial clusters that have been identified.

Unfortunately what we have witnessed in the last few years is that research efforts in Limpopo province are currently fragmented and uncoordinated. There is a collection of research reports and outputs in various Limpopo government departments which do not talk to one another or complement what other spheres of government are doing on the ground. Mostly these reports have relied on the data which have no common standards and is of undetermined quality and may very well be inconsistent and incoherent due to an absence of sufficient discourse on methodology and outcomes. There is also duplication of research projects and wastage of resources in most of this exercise. It is also quite unfortunate that our monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems seem not to be well oiled enough to detect these overlaps and existing gaps.

All of this is happening in the face of research policies and strategies formulated by the South African government aimed at addressing pressing national economic and social development issues. We have to date, formulated wide ranging research policies and strategies as government such as the National Research and Development Strategy, Indigenous Knowledge Systems Strategy, Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy, Human Resource Development Strategy, National Water Strategy, Biotechnology Strategy and Integrated Manufacturing Strategy with the aim of redressing the imbalances of the past.

All these government policies identify the need for innovation, human resource development, funding mechanisms and governance as key strategic resource for economic growth.

It is our view that this occasion provides an opportunity to all of us to assist government in mapping ways and means which can be used to provide technical guidelines towards creating a knowledge-based economy and a prosperous nation.

Obviously, another challenge we expect from you as intellectuals of different shades and persuasions is the production of critical skills for the benefit of our economy.

Some time last year, the National Research Foundation (NRF) published some startling findings which are quite shocking if they are anything to go by. These findings related to the poor readiness of the country when it comes to the nurturing of skills in the critical area of science and technology. In this report, the NRF suggested that the scientific output from our research and higher education institutions were 'more or less constant' over the past 10 to 12 years. The report mentioned that 'South Africa was producing 23 Science and Technology PhDs per million citizens in 2003, against 150 or more produced by South Korea's and 200 produced by Australia'. This can only suggest that the country has stagnated in the production of Science and Technology PhD's over many years and those who are already in these fields may be much older and above 50.

Taken at a glance, the report of the NRF has huge implication for our country as it means that, "for us to remain competitive in the growing global knowledge economy, South Africa will need to produce 6000 science and technology PhDs a year — something our higher education sector is nowhere close to doing." Without us spending enough budgets on R&D, it may become very difficult for the country to remain competitive in a global knowledge based economy. This is so if we take into account the fact that the biggest spending countries in R&D have also proven to be the most economically competitive.

The NRF findings should serve as a wake up call for not only universities but equally for communities and government to continue encouraging more and more learners to enrol mathematics and science subjects in their schools. Most critical in this, is the encouragement of women and girls to start pursuing careers in the fields of science and technology.

While we should celebrate the slight improvement in our mathematics and science passes during our matric results last year, we should at the same time continue to be worried that we have not yet reached sufficient levels of passes in mathematics and science as a country. This is not only a Limpopo problem but a national challenge.

Over the years including last year, we have learned that in the international test of maths and science competency called Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), South Africa always obtain the last position out of 52 countries. We are even beaten by poorer countries whose GDP's are much lower than ours, something which begs the question, what is wrong with our education system?

Programme director

This summit is aimed at analysing the risks attached to research and development which need government to provide active support. It is also aimed at discussing the funding models for research and development initiatives in Limpopo as well as the 5-year research and development implementation plan and Provincial Research and Development Framework.

In this context, one of the challenges we also need to grapple with is the need for the province to develop a reliable research and development database, taking into consideration the fact that applicable international research, national and local research findings are scattered in the form of research papers and reports. The database must enable the province to understand the status-quo of R&D in the province especially in so far as it relates to questions of who is researching what and where?, as well as the existing gaps. It will also be important for our R&D strategy to also harness the many research works that are conducted by our masters and doctoral students at our two universities if it is to benefit from localised experiences and practice.

Finally, it is now my singular pleasure and privilege to declare the Provincial Research and Development Summit officially open. I have no doubt that you have all that it takes to move this debate beyond our imagination.

I thank you.

Issued by: Limpopo Provincial Government
28 October 2008