Science, Technology and Innovation in supporting Africa’s industrial

Development

Francis Gudyanga, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology,ZIMBABWE

fpgudyanga@zarnet.ac.zw

Outline of Presentation Introduction Review of the CODIST II Concept Note Paper Review of the CODIST II Keynote Speech Africa’s performance on some global STI

Indicators Africa’s Comparative Advantages Lessons for Africa from other regions Africa’s options/imperatives Recommendations

INTRODUCTION Modern industrial development requires know-how and capacity to adopt, disseminate, and

implement science and technology for practical uses.

Many African countries associated with natural resources and raw materials. Even with this comparative advantage, except for South Africa, most of the economies have either stagnated or grown slowly.

Building S&T capacity requires investment in R&D which must compete with other spending priorities of the state; nonetheless, STI are indispensable tools for achieving these other priority objectives.

COSTID II 2011 is timely to reinforce the importance of STI to industrial development

Africa is not completely homogenous; there are disparities between different countries and regions in the continent. Three groups in terms of technological advancement: South Africa, North Africa, Sub-Sahara Africa

Differences between African countries minor compared to disparities between Africa and other regions. Challenges and opportunities throughout the continent are similar. Throughout this presentation Africa will be presented as one.

Review of the CODIST II Concept paper

Well researched and referenced Balanced Sets the right scene Reminds us of previous declarations by

African governments on the importance of STI

Notes that declarations not matched with requisite financial allocations to STI programmes

REVIEW OF THE KEYNOTE SPEECH

Well structured paper Broad overview of the status of STI in Africa Information of the WB and ADB North Africa grouped with Middle East

Manufacturing picked as an illustrative case to characterise Africa’s industialisation Competitive Industrial Performance Index (CIP), the Global Competitive Index (GCI) and the

Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) used for comparative analysis. The paper picks also Tunisia in Africa for detailed comparison with India and Malaysia and draw

lessons for the rest of Africa.   The paper arrives as the same conclusion as arrived at using other set of indicators. The

conclusion is that Africa’s industrial performance is dismal. The paper gives detailed definitions of Innovation and the complex National Innovations Systems

to assist policy makers to understand these concepts with a view to making informed policy decisions.

  On STI the paper recommends investment in extensive training and research as necessary steps

toward transforming the continent into a knowledge society. He wisely recommends concentrating the limited resources towards well targeted research.

Indicators of the Technology Achievement Index (TAI)

Type of Indicator Indicator

Creation of Technology

Patents

Royalties

Diffusion of recent innovation

Internet

Exports

Diffusion of old innovations

Telephones

Electricity

Human SkillsSchooling

University

TAI Ranking of 67 selected countries

Leaders Potential Leaders

Dynamic Adopters

Marginalised

TAI: > 0.5 TAI: 0.35-049 TAI: 0.2-0.34 TAI: <0.2

17 countries 15 countries 26 countries 8 countries

No African country No African country 5 African countries

6 African countries

This group is at the cutting edge of technological innovation

Most of these countries have invested in high levels of human skills; have diffused old technologies widely

Countries are dynamic in the use of new technologies; most are developing countries with important high-tech industries.

Technology diffusion and skill building have a long way to go; Most African countries belong to this group

Region High Tech Imports

High Tech Exports

GERD as % of GDP

Researchers Publications Patents GDP

World 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100

America 21.4 17.7 37.9 25.4 35.3 43.2 31.3

Europe 34.2 36.0 27.4 29.5 42.5 27.8 29.0

Africa 1.4 0.3 0.9 2.2 2.0 0.1 3.9

Asia 41.7 45.8 32.2 40.9 30.7 31.9 34.5

Oceania 1.3 0.2 1.6 2.0 3.4 1.8 1.4

Ranking of regions by the above indicators

12345

AsiaEuropeAmericasAfricaOceania

AsiaEuropeAmericasAfricaOceania

AmericasAsiaEuropeOceaniaAfrica

AsiaEuropeAmericasAfricaOceania

EuropeAmericasAsiaOceaniaAfrica

AmericaAsiaEuropeOceaniaAfrica

AsiaAmericasEuropeAfricaOceania

ImportsExportsGERDResearchersPublicationsPatentsGDP

Indicators point to Africa’s

Poverty Food insecurity Diseases Poor infrastructure Industrial stagnation etc

HDI: Composite measure of health, education and income

AFRICA’S COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES

Natural Resources African oil Minerals Fresh water – Lake Victoria, Lake Volta, Kariba Dam

Hydroelectric value

Oceans – Atlantic and Indian Oceans Fishing, mining and offshore oil drilling

Human capital

“Take it back: Europe’s new auto recycling laws,” – Stephen Power, p. W15, WSJE

(April 21-23, 2006)

Automakers required to “recycle 85% of a vehicle by weight, rising to 95 % in 2015”

“Automakers are increasingly using synthetic materials, such as reinforced plastics, to lower the vehicle weight and emissions. Those materials are much harder to recycle than conventional non-synthetic materials”

DaimlerChrysler….has begun building Mercedes-Benz cars with exteriors made partly of a type of banana-plant fiber that is both more biodegradable and lighter than exteriors made from conventional glass fibers”

Resource Curse

“Almost without exception, the resource-abundant countries have stagnated in economic growth since the early 1970s, inspiring the term, ‘curse of natural resources’. Empirical studies have shown that this curse is a reasonably solid fact…..Except for the direct contribution of the natural resource sector itself, …natural resource abundant countries systematically failed to achieve strong export led growth or other kinds of growth”

- Sachs and Warner, European Economic Rev., 45, 827-838 (2001)

Resource Curse

“Economic growth since 1965 has varied inversely with the share of natural capital in national wealth across countries….”

“Natural capital appears to crowd out human capital, thereby slowing down the pace of economic development”

“..nations that believe that natural capital is their most important asset may develop a false sense of security and become negligent about the accumulation of human capital”

- Gylfason, European Economic Rev., 45, 847- 859 (2001)

Minerals and Africa’s Knowledge Economy

Can “large-scale investments in exploration, transportation, geological knowledge, and the technologies of extraction, refining, and utilization” help to transform Africa’s minerals sector into “a leading edge of the knowledge economy” in the continent?

Challenge: Sustainable Development via Export of Unprocessed Metal Ores? 10000000

1000000

100000

10000

1000

100

10

11750 1800 205020001850 1900 1950

Extraction

Discovery

Year

Cop

per,

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Copper; after Gordon et al., Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sci., 103, 1209 (2006)

Leveraging natural resources

African cartels of commodities Platinum, diamond, cobalt, chromite, coffee, etc

Funding capacity building and R&D in exchange for access to natural resources University infrastructure,chairs and scholarships R&D centres and programmes

Lessons from China and India

China: more traditional labour intensive export strategy India: a new knowledge intensive service export strategy Traditional Industrial policies from both China and India

Protection of infant industries Direct state ownership Selective credit allocation Favourable tax treatment to specific industries Tariff and non-tariff barriers to imports Restrictions on FDI Local content requirements Special IPR policies Government procurement Promotion of large domestic firms SMEs: reserved by law certain products Massive investment in Higher Education

Lessons from India and China (cont.) Modern industrial policies

Strategies for tapping into global knowledge: Trade, FDI, technology licensing, copying and reverse engineering, foreign education and training, accessing information in print and internet, large market pull, Technology parks to attract diaspora;

Increased spending in R&D for MNCs to do R&D locally

MNCs setting up R&D centres for developing products for global markets Cost-effectiveness: hiring relatively low-wage

scientists and engineers

Lessons from India and China (Cont.)

Africa’s challenges not experienced by India & China Economies of scale - large domestic markets Competitive low labour-intensive export products Africa not integrated yet into global supply and

distribution chains through MNCs and vast diaspora

India and China now exporting technology intensive goods

Africa’s other challenges

Tighter international trade regulations Pressure to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers – GATT Stronger rules about subsidies and other indirect support

to special industries Stronger teeth to enforce IPR regulations Market economy much more global market No economies of scale in purchasing, branding,

advertising and distribution No critical mass of highly educated professionals to

power rapid move up the technology ladder

Africa’s action in support of STI-led industrial development

Political level Political commitment and leadership of STI Informed STI policies Policy consistencies Industrial/trade policy interventions in support of

STI Harmonisation of national policies to bring better

integration of cross-cutting STI policies Act in concert at regional and continental level

Economies of scale; cartels on commodities

Action Africa need to take (cont.)

Investment in education Primary education Secondary education – science biased curiculum Higher Education – strongly oriented towards the

acquisition of knowledge, reinforcement of critical skills; central to the knowledge society

Postgraduate and doctoral studies Meaningful and serious innovations to meet global

challenges PhD holders needed to train the next generation of

scientists and engineers

Action Africa need to take (cont.)

Massive investment in R&D 1% GERD over GDP Niche areas and/or emerging technologies where

there are prospects of leapfrogging Materials research – nanotechnology Biotechnology ICT Renewable energy etc

Materials Research

Capitalising on Africa’s natural resources Need to develop locally suited materials Africa Materials Research Society (AMRS)

Formed in 2002 in Daka, Senegal A NEPAD flagship programme under the

Consolidated Plan of Action Developing materials research capacity in Africa The only continental body of professionals

dedicated to the research on materials

AMRS Conferences

2003 South Africa

2005 Morocco

2007 Tanzania

2009 Nigeria

2011 Zimbabwe

Africa-MRS Conference in Victoria Falls 11-16 December 2011

www.africamrs.co.za Themes for the AMRS conference 2011

Materials Education and Networking Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology Basic Sciences of Materials Materials for Energy and Sustainability – fuel cells Infrastructure materials (cement and concrete) Raw materials beneficiation and Mineral

processing Materials for Life, Health and the Environment Frontiers of Materials Research

RECOMMENDATIONS

Political commitment and leadership on STI Industrial/trade intervention policies African cartels on commodities Support of STI in exchange of Access to

resources Investment in education: (attentions to PhDs) Investment in R&D

Commitment to 1% of GDP Research in niche areas

Support for African-MRS (a CPA flagship)

THANK YOU