Date: 24 June 2008
Source: The Presidency
Title: SA: Mlambo-Ngcuka: Launch of the IBM Africa Convention Centre

Salutations
Programme director,
Minister of Communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri,
Senior Vice-President of the IBM Corporation, Mr Steve Mills,
Managing Director of IBM in Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr Mark Harris,
Distinguished guests, friends,
Ladies and gentlemen

Introduction

I thank you for inviting me to again join you at this important occasion of the launch of the IBM Africa Innovation Centre. I stood here a mere 27 months ago (13 March 2006) at the launch of the Integrated Delivery Centre facility.

It was here that I appreciated the effort IBM is making towards skills development and job creation in this country. Since then we have sustained our interactions around tackling the issue of priority skills, which our economy direly needs to grow at six percent by 2010.

For us in government as a whole, these interactions demonstrate the necessary partnership we should continue to have with the private sector because it is through such continuous engagement that we are able to arrive at lasting solutions.

Africa Innovation Centre

I am happy today to preside over the launch of the Africa Innovation Centre. I have just seen the facility with its entire impressive hi-tech make up and its integral capabilities - such as its ability to facilitate the transfer of key skills to local people and provide solutions to local business.

It is its promise for enablement of generation of new inventions and the small business finance grid that will effect the positive change we want in the African economy. That this Centre will be accessible to all Africans is noteworthy for its vision to compliment existing public and private sector economic infrastructure programmes.

The importance of this contribution to regional economic stability cannot be overemphasised. It is very obvious to see that a thriving South Africa can only continue to be in a similarly prosperous Sub-Saharan Africa region and the continent at large. There is no two ways about this.

I am informed that this Centre joins a global network of seven specialised IBM facilities, including sites in Brazil, China and India, as well as Japan, the UK and the US. This to me attests to the fact that South Africa is doing many things right for us to attract such an investment alongside the calibre of countries that are currently pulling a lot of the global investors' attention.

Innovation and education

Innovation is probably the single most critical weapon for emerging markets such as ours to create advantages for us to compete successfully in the global market environment.

However, innovation requires awakened minds for it to manifest. And this is where the symbiotic relationship between quality education and relevant skills development becomes a critical intervention.

Africa is a young continent with a young population and that is true of South Africa. Through technology we can empower the chronically poor young Africans into a major human resource asset by using technology to produce globally competent and productive workers.

We face a big challenge in the world of scarce skills and talent and also to reinvent the way we can learn and educate in line with the global crisis for skills.

We can go forward successfully through such partnerships which integrate the best of models and approaches across sectors. Through such working partnerships, we should be able to ingrain a new sense of focus among our young learners at school and nurture a new generation of responsible and patriotic professionals. These partnerships add meat to Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) to stimulate shared economic growth, and Jipsa which focuses on skills development.

Information and communication technology (ICT) Driver of Economic Growth

Our capacity to leverage the information and communication technology (ICT) sector as a central driver for economic growth remains underutilised. For instance, the pervasive Internet and cellphone technology present enormous opportunity for economic growth and social development.

It requires of us, in government especially to show agility in our policy making to ensure that at all times we promote industry growth. The Information Age demands a new thinking in government, the same way it does in the business sector. We are faced with the lingering question of how do we create an economy that thrives domestically, keeps pace with change, yet also competes on the global stage? This is crucial for Africa to trade as a major, equal partner with the rest of the world.

The other reality is that our task all of us is to build an enduring economy that can hold its own in the midst of the global economic turmoil. Working together we must empower poor Africans to take their fate into their own hands.

Advisory bodies

We do believe that such institutions as the Presidential International Advisory Council on ICT will continue to enable the sharing of ideas which leads to us charting a path that encourages foreign direct investment in our economy.

The establishment of the e-Skills Council, in which IBM plays a key part, bodes well for the future as it signals continued collaboration among various stakeholders around the skills imperative.

A huge opportunity remains untapped in the area of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). This continues to be an area of strategic growth for our economy and for absorbing unemployment. We want you to help us to do more and faster in this sector.

June - environment and youth month

This launch gives us the opportunity to talk about issues that affect us today inasmuch as our future generations. It is encouraging that this Innovation Centre applies some of the latest energy saving and environmentally-friendly technologies. It is also fitting that our youth have in this Centre a playground for innovation.

We have to continuously create an enabling environment for our young people to express themselves constructively. We have to ensure that the youth's energies are channelled appropriately into activities that will not only better their lives, but benefit the entire society.

For the responsibility to save energy, protect the environment and provide positive guidance to the youth is none but ourselves.

Together we will revolutionise the Green Agenda. We have to be resolute in our collective action to ensure that we play a neat game when it comes to our environment.

We also need to be steadfast in our commitment to playing an efficient game in relation to energy use. This has to be a way of life. It has to be a normal way of doing business.

We must also take responsibility as government, civil society and business to deepen policy and create opportunities for young people, women and communities so that they do great things for and by themselves. For instance, women need micro-finance to empower themselves economically and I am glad IBM has an interest in that as well.

A great Africa emerges

In recent times we have witnessed stinging economic experiences, highlighted by the credit crunch in the US. We have also felt its effects colluding with our own challenges to create new economic pressures we never quiet anticipated a decade ago such as the escalating food and fuel prices. People can produce their own food and also produce surplus to trade. That is an opportunity Africa has.

There is tremendous public sector investment on infrastructure and some private sector investment. But we can and must do more - especially in the area of foreign direct investment. As such, an investment such as the one IBM has made in the Africa Innovation Centre is very much appreciated for the role it plays in advancing our national and continental objectives around skills development.

Conclusion

My hope is that it will also encourage other global - and local organisations - to follow suit. Certainly the vision I have of Africa is one of a continent abuzz with commerce within her and flourishing in trade with the rest of the world. I see a continent that is in full control of its resources - both natural and intellectual.

I see the great continent Africa finally taking centre stage for all the progressive reasons, especially using ICT to change the future for our youth and women.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
24 June 2008
Source: The Presidency