Honourable MEC Sakhumzi Somyo, MEC of Economic Development Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEDEAT)
Dr Andile Ngcaba, Chairman of Dimension Data
Dr Sibusiso Sibisi, President of the CSIR
Mr Simphiwe Kondlo, CEO of the East London Industrial Development Zone (ELIDZ)
Mr McLean Sibanda, CEO of the Innovation Hub and African Divisional President of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation.
Mr Sybert Liebenberg Head of ELIZD Science and Technology Park (STP) and Industrial competitiveness and Innovation

It’s a pleasure to be here today to participate in the launch of a science and technology park in the East London Industrial Development Zone (ELIZD).

It’s inspiring to be in the presence of innovators and technology entrepreneurs who can and must assist in solving our socio-economic problems.

We have been slow, at the national level, to promote local and regional innovation systems. Yet regional innovative activity enjoys much attention both in the international policy and research worlds. All over the world countries grapple with regional income disparities. Successful regions sustain and even expand the gap that separates them from all other locations. And local innovation systems are usually important components of local and regional growth.

Yet what exactly determines local or regional innovation is contentious. The experts do not see eye to eye on the role of clusters or science parks in a globalised economy or on the merits of diversity versus specialisation in a city.

But we know this. What is required is a system that connects local government, big business, start-up entrepreneurs, venture capital, research organisations, higher education institutions, Further Education and Training colleges, and Services Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs). Interventions like the Innovation Hub in Tshwane or the Cape Information Technology Initiative (CITI) in Cape Town are different ways of approaching the challenge of building systems.

Two important reviews of our innovation system, the Cooperative Framework on Innovation Systems between Finland and South Africa (COFISA) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) innovation review, made important recommendations on how to improve our regional and local innovation systems.

Some of the main problems identified through COFISA were:

    underdeveloped provincial systems of innovation that are inadequately integrated with the national system
    a lack of provincial innovation institutions like innovation incubators and science parks
    poor communication and collaboration between national and local levels of government
    lack of connection and cooperation between the formal and the informal economies.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)  review of the South African innovation system highlighted comparable weaknesses - the limited government innovation activity at a provincial and local level.

Consequently, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has begun to invest in the development of regional innovation forums - the first pilot forum was launched in the Eastern Cape Province. Forums aim to bring together industry, government, academia and civil society to create an enabling environment for innovation and to create synergies between the different parties. The forums link role players together to ensure there is less duplication of initiatives, and they drive specific projects such as a local science or research park. More than 200 members are currently registered on the Eastern Cape Regional Innovation Forum’s database.

The DST has a long and special relationship with the Eastern Cape. The department supported the COFISA (Cooperative Framework on Innovation Systems between Finland and South Africa) programme, in terms of which the Eastern Cape was one of the three provinces that was analysed and surveyed. This played a key role in adding science, technology and innovation to the policy agenda in the Eastern Cape. It emphasised the importance of, and need for, innovation to drive the provincial and economic development process.

The DST also played a small role in co-funding the feasibility study and value chain study for this science park and supporting the development of a Provincial Innovation Strategy for the Eastern Cape. This latter strategy also highlighted the need to increase innovation coordination with the aim of advancing socio-economic development and growth.

The Science Park is a key development in the Eastern Cape provincial innovation system. It is envisaged that it will catalyse the development of provincial knowledge-based activities that will feed into the development of the Eastern Cape.

The Science Park will allow the industrial, research, small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME) and governmental partners to leverage the economies of scale created by the shared facilities, such as the creative and attractive common area that future start-up companies can use when conducting their business.

The Science Park is off to a good start in securing Dimension Data as an anchor tenant.

The collaboration space provided by the Science Park will facilitate collaboration between innovators, entrepreneurs, and university researchers. The aim is to establish multi-dimensional connections (and not just triple helixes), incorporating traditional knowledge systems, tertiary institutions, entrepreneurs and the public and private sectors.

The presence and/or partnerships with the incubation programmes of Chemistry and Mineralogy (CHEMIN), Eastern Cape Information Technology Initiative (ECITI) and Dimension Data’s Cortex Hub, are full of future promise for the resourcing and capacitating of start-ups especially in the ICT and high-tech innovation space. These may well become the future business and industry leaders of the local and regional innovation system.

It's worth emphasising this point. There are well established innovation systems in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). But innovation systems are largely absent from the other six provinces. We are trying to change this. We are putting in place building blocks for an Eastern Cape regional innovation system here today.

It is encouraging to see that the East London science park has taken a value chain approach and has also created initiatives aimed at providing an internationally accredited training and exchange platform for artisans in renewable technologies. This incubation support for innovators and entrepreneurs operating in knowledge-based activities will, I hope, lead to the establishment of ventures in the Eastern Cape economy – the idea being to incubate innovative ideas that will be commercialised in the economy of the Province.

Discussions have also started between the DST, the Eastern Cape Provincial Government and the science park to support the formation of a Regional Innovation Forum, the second for the Eastern Cape. It will play a key role in connecting and fostering cooperation between the science and technology and innovation knowledge partners within the area and to inform the appropriate frameworks for future innovation infrastructure.

We have a number of items on the agenda and I again want to thank everyone involved in making today a success. I hope this facility will develop and create even greater long-term returns on investment for all parties involved.

I thank you.