Has South Africa reached its goal of spending 1% of gross domestic product on research and development?
We think we have met the target. But 1% is not sufficient. Singapore spends close to 3%. I’m committed to continuing the upward trend in the government science budget, although the current economic circumstances make it unclear whether we can expect more than the baseline increases that have already been agreed [the science and technology department’s budget for 2009–10 is 4.2 billion rand (US$532 million), increasing to 4.7 billion in 2010–11 and 5.1 billion in 2011–12]. Also, the private sector is investing a lot but I think they could do more. Not all of South Africa’s research councils fall under your remit. For example, the Medical Research Council comes under the Department of Health. Is this satisfactory? I don’t have enough in-depth knowledge yet to be able to say how this should change. What I do know is that at the moment we are not coordinating sufficiently. I am convening a meeting of all ministers who have research councils in their portfolios to discuss this. One idea is
