House Chair, the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry study tour to Germany should have given South Africans or Members of this Parliament insight to some of the steps South Africa can and should take if we want to be innovators and producers in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and not just consumers.
In Germany, members of the committee experienced our manufacturing as becoming increasingly digitised and automated. An insight was given on the impact of Fourth Industrial Revolution we have on various industries and production processes. But well much can be learned from the Germans in the approach to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We must be aware of the differences between the economies of Germany and South Africa as this plays a great in understanding what needs to be done for us to be participants in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Germany economy is highly developed with the manufacturing sector constitutes over 20% of the economic productivity. Here, manufacturing has been on the decline for 25 years. Think of here in Cape Town in the Western