House Chair, it becomes very difficult to say anything articulately when the Minister of Science and Technology has already said it - it is a mouthful! Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, Comrade Naledi Pandor, hon Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Comrade Derek Hanekom, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers present here, hon members and guests of Parliament, the Director-General and his delegation, heads of science councils also present here, sons of the soil and flowers of the nation, people of integrity, I greet you! [Laughter.] [Applause.]
On 13 April 2011 the Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology was briefed by the Department of Science and Technology Director-General, Dr Phil Mjwara. The presentation included a focus on the department's strategic and principle goals, which are: building a National System of Innovation, NSI, with a further focus on key priorities and recent outputs; current strategic challenges; monitoring and evaluation; gross expenditure on research and development; and the financial resources of the department.
The Department's Corporate Strategy is mainly guided by the White Paper on Science and Technology, the Ten-Year Innovation Plan, the National Research and Development Strategy and the ANC government's medium-term strategic priorities.
The director-general told the portfolio committee that the department's main aim is to develop innovation capacity to further contribute to the socioeconomic development of our country. He also said that the current review of the National System of Innovation is aimed at enhancing the country's innovation capacity, and building a world-class science and technology innovation infrastructure, so as to extend the frontiers of knowledge, train the next generation of researchers, and enable technology development and transfer. Such infrastructural development would position South Africa as a strategic international research development and innovation partner, able to exchange knowledge capacity and resources with its regional as well as international partners.
Innovation by definition is the creative destruction of the old order with minimisation of costs and redeployment of resources. I have to describe it because I had an appeal recently that science and technology should be brought down to the level of the people. That is why I thought it was important that we should know exactly what some of the terminology in science and technology means. So, in a nutshell it is renewal, and renewal often thrives through forces of creation and destruction. The practical translation of this definition is that unless the organisation is prepared to renew its products or services on a continual basis, its survival is slim, if not nil. An alternative description of innovation is that it is a product of the diversity of input ideas found at the intersection or juncture of such diversity, and generates wealth as its output.
On the other hand, invention is the creation of a new idea for a product, process or service, which may include a new combination of pre-existing knowledge and the demonstration of its feasibility.
Hence from this, whereas inventions create new knowledge, innovations create wealth, which may probably be summarised mathematically in the following model: innovation = invention + market exploitation.
The National System of Innovation, on the other hand, is ideally a set of functioning institutions, organisations and policies which interact constructively in the pursuit of a common set of social and economic goals and objectives.
For effective co-ordination of activities of these components, government is central. This is the reason why the Department of Science and Technology, DST, is driving a Ten-Year Innovation Plan for the renewal of our economy. In its mission of realising its Ten-Year Innovation Plan vision in 2018, the department is supported and strengthened by its entities, such as the National Research Foundation, NRF. At about the same time as the Ten-Year Innovation Plan was born in 2008, the NRF as an engine of skills development in the National System of Innovation also adopted the so-called Vision 2015.
Under this vision, the NRF aims to focus on, amongst other activities, firstly, human capital development, HCD, by providing financial support to the first generation of postgraduates from poor and working-class families, and by supporting black women researchers in order to develop the next generation of academics and researchers who would otherwise have been historically disadvantaged by apartheid policies of the most grotesque evil the world has ever experienced.
Secondly, it will focus on strategic research infrastructure and provision of equipment. Third will be support for internationally competitive research as a basis for a knowledge economy. It is clear from the conceptual background of these two great visions of the Department of Science and Technology and NRF that we can formulate another mathematical working model: Vision Ten-Year Innovation Plan + Vision 2015 = Knowledge Economy South Africa.
Since the adoption of Vision 2015 by the NRF in 2008, there have been various policy developments that have impacted on the science system. For our interests, with regard to the National System of Innovation and innovation capacity building, we choose to focus on Industrial Policy Action Plan 2, IPAP2, in that it emphasises the maintenance of our country's technological edge in knowledge-intensive sectors of our economy in collaboration with DST strategies.
The central thrust of trade and industrial policy has to be the pursuit of employment-creating international competitiveness. Central to the latter is the development and application of science and technology with the National System of Innovation, and consequently the success of the growth and development strategy of the ANC-led government, in particular the recently adopted New Growth Path.
Even our President, Comrade Jacob Zuma, in his address said that the Boao Asia Forum meeting in China on 15 April 2011 highlighted the importance of the newly adopted Growth Path as a focal point for job creation. In realising this dream for our country, innovation is as important to us as oxygen is for the people of this world.
Many companies and institutions fail to create the future, not because they fail to predict it, but because they fail to imagine their place and role in it. This remains one complex space in any endeavour to innovate, and we must only wish the Department of Science and Technology good luck in this great endeavour and challenge. The Minister has highlighted a number of the recent outputs and achievements of the department. I will just list a few here to show how much our department has really put into its endeavours to change the way we live.
One of the achievements is the establishment of the Technology Innovation Agency, Tia. As the Minister said, the Intellectual Property Rights from the Publicly Financed Research Act, IPR Act, and protection of scientific research results through the National Intellectual Property Management Office, Nipmo, are in the process of being established. There are also centres of competence; research development and innovation to support sector competitiveness and dynamism; and provisional innovation systems.
In regard to the hosting of the World Science Forum in 2015, the World Science Forum is one of the top forums in the world. You do not apply to go there; they identify you! And the Minister has been identified to go and address the 2015 Forum. [Applause.] Of course, I myself have also been identified to attend! [Laughter.]
We have also been honoured by being appointed to host the Astronomy Development Office here in South Africa, and very recently we hosted the international Academy of Science in South Africa.
Let me come back to the analysis of Budget Vote 34. Our President, Comrade Zuma, in his state of the nation address of 2011 highlighted the fact that, in order to enhance our innovation in science and technology, we are bidding to host the Square Kilometre Array, SKA, radio telescope. It is noted that the bid has thus far created 800 job opportunities in the Northern Cape, and is expected to create 100 more jobs this year. However, both the 2011 state of the nation address and the budget speech have not much reflected what role the department should play in contributing to the goal of job creation.
The department had a projected number of internships to be awarded, which was 348, but in the end it achieved only about 121. The department also projected that 2 800 households would benefit from technology-based interventions per year, but only 420 households had benefited at the end of the first six months. It is clear, therefore, that the department probably needs to try to adjust some of its initial targets, if they are not achievable.
The department is the darling of both the Treasury and the Auditor- General's office. In recent days, when we invited them to see us, they told us that the Department of Science and Technology was a model of good governance in this country, and in particular they said that the CSIR was looking at being the representative entity to meet the 2014 Millennium Development Goals. I think that the department needs to be congratulated for that. [Applause.]
Otherwise, all in all the department has performed marvellously well, so as to make our Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology proud and respected. Our portfolio committee therefore proudly supports Budget Vote 34.
At this juncture I also wish to thank all the members of my committee, the Minister and the Deputy Minister for their support. They are frequent members of my study group, and that is why most of what I have said links up with what the Minister has said. [Laughter.] There is no way that we can quarrel, because we planned together! [Applause.]
Finally, I would also like to thank all our members who have been a source of support during this very difficult period. Thank you very much. [Applause.]