Learn from Japan’s example — Pandor

SA SHOULD follow Japan’s example in becoming a knowledge-based economy through growth in basic research funding, greater industry-university collaboration and strengthening its intellectual property rights, outgoing Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said yesterday.

Japan is the world’s thirdlargest economy and is considered to be one of the most innovative in terms of the number of patents that it files.

Scientific and innovationbased output is an important part of the Department of Science and Technology’s 10-year innovation plan, which aims to develop the country’s knowledge economy and boost economic competitiveness and job creation.

But while SA has significantly increased its research output, the country still lags in patenting its technologies.

“New knowledge must be commercialised,” David Kaplan, an economics professor at the University of Cape Town, said earlier this year.

“You can have a lot of new knowledge and no commercialisation.… Knowledge (in the form of research papers) in itself is not an input into the economy.”

Delivering the keynote address at a space science colloquium between SA and the Japanese embassy, held at the University of Pretoria, Ms Pandor said: “We have a lot to learn from Japan as far as university-industry collaboration is concerned.

“South African universities and the government have been slow to promote spin-off companies, technology transfer contracts and patents.”

SA and Japan both regarded science and technology as fundamental to solving the difficult questions to do with economic growth, climate change and food security, the minister said.

Japan’s ambassador to SA, Yutaka Yoshizawa, said yesterday his country considered international collaboration in space science important, noting that “SA has been strengthening its space activities”.

The South African National Space Agency, formed in 2009, has yet to finalise its space programme, outlining its activities.