Science, Technology and Innovation in supporting Africa’s industrial Development

1. Science, Technology and Innovation in supporting Africa’s industrial Development Francis Gudyanga, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology,ZIMBABWE fpgudyanga@zarnet.ac.zw

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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.

6. Indicators of the Technology Achievement Index (TAI)

7. TAI Ranking of 67 selected countries

12. Imports Exports GERD Researchers Publications Patents GDP

13. Indicators point to Africa’s • Poverty • Food insecurity • Diseases • Poor infrastructure • Industrial stagnation • etc

14. HDI: Composite measure of health, education and income

15. 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

17. “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”

18. 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)

19. 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)

20. 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’sminerals sector into “a leading edge of the knowledge economy” in the continent?

21. Challenge: Sustainable Development via Export of Unprocessed Metal Ores? 10000000 1000000 Discovery 100000 10000 Extraction Copper, Gg 1000 100 Copper; after Gordon et al., Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sci., 103, 1209 (2006) 10 1 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2050 1750 Year

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. AMRS Conferences • 2003 South Africa • 2005 Morocco • 2007 Tanzania • 2009 Nigeria • 2011 Zimbabwe

33. Africa-MRS Conference in Victoria Falls 11-16 December 2011www.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

34. 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)

35. THANK YOU