Tags: Innovation, Human capital, Knowledge infrastructure, Economy, Research and Development, R&D

The report builds on previous work undertaken by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). It is not, however, a compendium of existing programmes. Instead, it is a high-level presentation of the principal challenges identified by the DST, starting not from where South Africa is today, but where we should be a decade from now. The core projections for 2018 are summarised as South Africa’s “grand challenges” in science and technology. The title of this report emphasises innovation – but not innovation for its own sake. South Africa’s prospects for improved competitiveness and economic growth rely, to a great degree, on science and technology. The government’s broad developmental mandate can ultimately be achieved only if South Africa takes further steps on the road to becoming a knowledge-based economy. Transformation in this direction will necessarily shift the proportion of national income derived from knowledge-based industries, the percentage of the workforce employed in knowledge-based jobs and the ratio of firms using technology to innovate.

Innovation Towards a Knowledge-based Economy Ten-Year Plan for South Africa.pdf