Alderman Sithonga
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
I am indeed thrilled to welcome you all to the launch of the first Provincial Advanced Manufacturing & Technology Strategy. It has been a ground breaking partnership between government, the City of Cape Town and the Department of Science and Technology, along with key inputs from industry, labour and academia. As such it is a truly collaborative project, with deep partnerships being forged.
Economic growth and job creation lie at the heart of the Western Cape Provincial Government's Micro-Economic Development Strategy (the MEDS), led by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism. The MEDS covers 18 sectors, and 5 crosscutting themes, and provides a comprehensive policy platform from which to effect implementation.
We must acknowledge and understand that we live in a Globally Competitive world and therefore our strategies and interventions has to be responsive to this environment.
The PAMTS does this, it takes forward, in detail, aspects of the MEDS specifically regarding advanced technology and innovation that are key to the future competitiveness of our industries.
I have just returned from India and Japan, two very different countries which have taken very different development paths. Central to both has been the development of their manufacturing sectors and critical role that technology has and will continue to play.
In the words of Dave Kaplan, our Chief Economist in my Department, "we need to encourage firms to strive for the technology frontiers, and do what it takes to get them there." If we do not, we will increasingly find our industrial base being eroded, which will seriously impact on the ability of our economy to grow.
Let us be reminded that South Africa has played a leading role in innovation globally, some of the interesting innovations are:
Aloe vera products,
Appletiser and Grapetiser,
Bell articulated trucks
Buchu appetite supressant,
the CAT scan, which uses x-rays, radiation detectors and computers to produce images of planes through the body.
Cybertracker, a handheld computer originally developed to help Khoisan trackers store data,
Jetmaster fireplaces
Kreepy Krauly, and
Pratley putty the only South African invention to travel to space.
The windmill
Cats eyes are all truly South African inventions and innovations.
The detail will be presented later, but we view the selection of the five sectors, namely Craft, Clothing, Metals & Engineering, Electronics and Food processing being a valuable set of sectors in which to examine the potential for advanced technologies, and interventions to assist our firms to reach and even push out the technology frontiers. These sectors were chosen to represent a spread of technology intensivity, and to learn the lessons coming out of them. What is clear is that advanced technologies in terms of materials, design, ICT, logistics and production can and must be made accessible to all firms if they are going to remain competitive irrespective of the size of the firm or the sector in which they are represented. The lessons emerging therefore from this process can now be applied to any sectors that come forward, or have a strategic need for development.
As a deposit, we have committed close to R1m as provincial government to kick start a number of the projects put forward by the PAMTS. These include the Cape Tooling Initiative, the Craft Innovation Centre and the Clothing Innovation Network. These and other projects will leverage funding from national and local government sources, and we are working actively with our partners in government to put flesh on to these projects.
We are also investigating the possibility of supporting an electronics innovation network, given the national thrust and demand from sectors such as auto's, marine and aerospace.
As a direct result of the PAMTS food research, we have also come to recognise this sector as one which is under-researched, but which has considerable potential for growth. On my recent visit to India it was clear that our advances in the agro-processing sector could have significant potential for growth in that market. We are embarking on a detailed investigation to develop a comprehensive set of interventions in the food processing industry, and will take forward the very valuable work done by the PAMTS.
I believe that the PAMTS will make a meaningful contribution to increasing competitiveness, creating jobs and reducing poverty. I thank all our partners for their support, all the industry players for your time, effort and input and all within the team who have brought this strategy to this point.
In the words of one of the world's most foremost inventors and thinkers Albert Einstein: Imagination is more important than knowledge
To all those involved in the development of this strategy; Your efforts will create the space to push the frontiers of innovation in this Province and will make a difference in the lives of many, not only in the Western Cape, but throughout the country and to the rest of the developing world.
