Digital Reach

innovation systems, focused on the three pilot provinces of

Gauteng, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape.

The programme conforms to the Finnish guidelines for devel-

opment of Information Society for 2005, which emphasize the

creation of preconditions for the development of an information

economy in partner countries, especially those that are in transi-

tion. Based on Finland’s own experiences relating to the

Information Society and economic policy, it is crucial that, by

upgrading local innovative activities, legislation and economic

policy, cooperation on development ensures economic growth

and its more balanced distribution, especially for the benefit of

the poorest parts of the population. Of equal importance is the

attempt to secure the establishment of a nationally significant

entrepreneurial sector in developing countries. This will gener-

ate local employment and encourage content production based

on national languages and cultures. In its regional and country-

specific development activities, Finland gives priority to the

coherent development of such regional or national strategies,

particularly concerning strategies for the reduction of poverty and

the development of an Information Society, and relevant regula-

tory frameworks.

Mainstreaming ICT into different sectors of society in order to

attain the development goals could fail without the creation of

more general preconditions for both global and regional sustain-

able development. The preconditions for establishing a sustainable

Information Society must, therefore, be developed comprehen-

sively in the partner countries. This calls for an extensive skills

and knowledge base among citizens, legislation, strategies, appro-

priate infrastructure, and supporting information economy

instruments. The guidelines for the Finnish development policy

provide a framework for the development of a sustainable

Information Society, which can also be seen as laying the ground-

work for national innovation systems.

Sharing knowledge and know-how

Finland is known for its high technology, but also for its skills

and expertise, education, and state-of-the-art research and inno-

vation systems. These factors, which are essentially related to

knowledge and know-how, can have a major effect on economic,

social and cultural development. In Finland, Information Society

policy has pooled technology, know-how and innovation into a

coordinated entity, giving Finnish public and private institutions

a good starting point to act as a partner in comparable strategic

projects in South Africa.

South Africa has great potential for innovation and business

development, with key strategic-level and basic educational

and research and development structures in place as well as a

mature national innovation policy framework. But with the

exception of a few initiatives such as Blue IQ in Gauteng and

the Cape Information Technology Initiative in the Western

Cape, integrated management mechanisms to support innova-

tion at the national and provincial levels are not yet sufficiently

developed. Presently the critical innovation actors (higher

education, public, research and technology organizations,

industry and government) have failed to optimally converge

around the broad objectives of innovation-based growth and

development.

Whereas South Africa is only beginning to grapple with the

challenges associated with establishing a national system for inno-

vation, Finland has achieved highly acclaimed success in terms

of regional innovation and development. Finland obviated the

main impediments of its innovation system by broadening and

deepening the national innovation policy discourse and provid-

ing concessions and incentives to support, for example, the

following actions, which are also of interest for South Africa:

• Innovation management activities based on regional strengths

• Development of cluster-based programmes in key core

competence sectors

• Strengthening of the Centres of Expertise Programme

• Development of regional innovation programmes

• Target-based research and development activities to promote

local and foreign companies

• Increased and more effective utilization of foreign technology

• Well-defined spin-off and start-up processes with financial

and commercialization tools.

Finnish experience shows that unless interventions are coordi-

nated, with the government playing a proactive role, opportunities

to leverage the national innovation system are piece meal and

constrained.

Closer regional cooperation, coordination and integration

within South Africa at all levels of political and socioeconomic

life is a strategic national priority. South Africa, therefore, partic-

ipates actively in all the forums, including those related to

science and technology, of the SADC, a regional organization

whose members comprise South Africa and thirteen other

Southern African countries. The objectives of the New

Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), a Pan-African

initiative aimed at accelerating Africa’s growth and develop-

ment, also serves to inform the strategic policy objectives of

both South Africa and the other SADC member states. Both the

NEPAD and SADC programmes recognize the important role

played by science and technology as instruments for growth and

development.

The strengthening of national innovation systems in African

countries and their regional and continental integration are,

therefore, key objectives for both NEPAD and SADC. South

Africa and Finland agree that strengthening regional coopera-

tion in Southern Africa. The Finland-South African Cooperation

Framework on Innovation Systems also shows rich potential

for finding applications in other Southern African countries. In

light of this goal, opportunities for appropriate expansion of

the cooperation framework to include other Southern African

countries will also be explored during implementation of the

framework.

Building sustainable institutional links

Both Finland and South Africa agree that the strengthening links

between institutions, corporations and civil society organizations

is a key element to sustainable collaboration in the future. These

partnerships should be based on mutual interests, and should

benefit all participants. In this spirit, Finland has encouraged the

creation of partnerships by providing special seed funding for the

startup and planning of joint projects. The science and technol-

ogy sector was identified as an area where this type of partnership

could flourish, and within the development of information tech-

nology envelope, the development of Information Society was

specified as a target area. Since 2004, several fruitful partnerships

have been established between the institutions of the two coun-

tries. Bearing in mind the multinational nature of science and

technology collaboration, the partnerships have been opened to

other countries as well, even if they do not necessarily benefit

from the Finnish funding associated with South Africa and some

of its neighbouring countries.

[

] 30