{"id":1039,"date":"2014-10-28T10:05:11","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T10:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/?p=1039"},"modified":"2014-10-28T10:05:11","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T10:05:11","slug":"innovation-key-to-economic-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/news\/innovation-key-to-economic-growth","title":{"rendered":"Innovation key to economic growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BRICS<\/a><\/p>\n

Minister in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe, says BRICS countries must continue to embrace innovation as a key driver for economic growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cInnovation is a powerful engine for development and for addressing social and global challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can also affirm that innovation is centrally located in South Africa\u2019s long term economic growth strategy, which includes a focus on the pharmaceutical industry, indigenous knowledge and rich biodiversity\u2026\u201d said Minister Radebe.<\/p>\n

The Minister was speaking at the official opening of the third annual InnovaBRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] conference in London on Monday.<\/p>\n

Minister Radebe said South Africa was determined to develop its research capacity in order to fuel innovation to drive economic growth. The country would also have a special focus on development programmes to support young, female and black researchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that regard, we are putting in place an ambitious programme to develop the next generation of academics and researchers. Over the next five years, our target is to spend 1.5% of GDP [gross domestic product] on research and development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister Radebe is leading the South African delegation at the conference, which includes the Ministers of Trade and Industry Rob Davies, Finance Nhlanhla Nene and Communications Faith Muthambi.<\/p>\n

South Africa is using the conference as a platform to popularise its National Development Plan, which is the blueprint for ending poverty and reducing inequality by 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NDP aims to unlock the institutional, human and structural impediments to higher growth in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt offers a framework for faster growth and socio-economic transformation. The BRICS countries are an important part of this strategy,\u201d said Minister Radebe.<\/p>\n

He said InnovaBRICS was a unique opportunity to promote closer cooperation between BRICS countries to support South Africa\u2019s growth, development and poverty reduction objectives.<\/p>\n

He said the BRICS grouping was not only one of the most recognised in the world but it also constituted in excess of a quarter of global GDP.<\/p>\n

BRICS countries account for 43% of the world\u2019s population and hold 40% of global currency reserves, estimated at around US$4.4 trillion.<\/p>\n

South Africa also expressed its commitment to developing infrastructure that connects it to the rest of the continent, as part of the African Union\u2019s Presidential Infrastructure Championing Initiative. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minister in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe, says BRICS countries must continue to embrace innovation as a key driver for economic growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,27,1,192],"tags":[709,225,697],"class_list":["post-1039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brics","category-featured","category-news","category-technology","tag-brics","tag-economic-growth","tag-innovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1041,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions\/1041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebizsense.com\/za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}