Introduction

One of the dividing lines between a thriving economy in which people are fully able to seize opportunities, and a failing, stultified one which sheds jobs and crushes hopes, is the degree to which new ideas, creativity and the development of sophisticated skills are encouraged. Countries which have brought about real improvements in peoples' lives are those in which innovation, renewal and the pursuit of excellence have been placed at the centre of government business. 

Even more so now, in the face of the world economic crisis, we need to be finding new ways to do business, to manage our resources, to stop health epidemics and to create opportunities.

The DA sees South Africa becoming a flourishing centre of innovative development on the African continent, and the fulcrum around which the rejuvenation of the southern African region turns.

In achieving this objective our country already have many advantages. We have brilliant innovators in our higher education institutions and in industry. We have a fairly healthy and competitive economy. Most South Africans are acutely aware of the challenges our country faces and this drives an ongoing national discussion about how to solve these problems.

But we also have some debilitating weaknesses. For most children, our education system does not nourish their minds or leave them well prepared to meet our country's challenges. Our universities are under strain because their important role in driving innovation is insufficiently recognised. At the same time, our regulatory system appears sometimes to be aimed at discouraging innovation rather than stimulating it, and government interventions in industry are often driven by imperatives far removed from advancing innovation.

As a result, we have neither the high-tech skills base nor the intellectual capital that we need to compete with the best in the world, and the effect is evident in our declining international competitiveness. According to the 2008 World Competitiveness Yearbook 2008, South Africa declined from 50th most competitive in 2007 to 53rd most competitive in 2008. Our competitive rankings have fallen annually since 2006. 

To build an Open, Opportunity Society, we need to turn this situation around.

For a country to be properly able to develop new ideas and translate them into value, certain requirements must be met. Meeting these requirements requires the government's active involvement, but involvement in a constructive, facilitating role, not an overbearing and deadening one.

Firstly, the education system, including schools and tertiary education institutions, must ground young South Africans in the knowledge and skills that will allow and encourage them to use their talents to the maximum to innovate.

Secondly, we need to build up our research capacity and stimulate innovation in all sectors of society at all levels. We need to enhance value-added activity, build up high-level expertise in areas where we face critical shortages and increase innovation in every sector of our society.

In doing so, government must not only make the path clear for these developments, but it must lead the way itself.  All government departments and institutions must be on the cutting edge of technology, so that our hospitals and health care systems, our welfare grant delivery mechanisms, our crime management tools, and our infrastructure development programmes are as effective and efficient as it is possible to be.

Through its policy on innovation, the DA aims to:

• Stimulate investments in research and innovation;
• Attract innovators and entrepreneurs from around the world and keep South African talent at home;
• Invest in, generate and attract a workforce with first-rate skills in science, engineering, creative arts, business and entrepreneurship;
• Stimulate stronger private-sector investment in knowledge-based companies and capital that boosts productivity; and
• Be globally recognized as a country that supports the growth of innovative companies and activities.