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- Dr Blade Nzimande said the country was still firmly committed to increasing a proportion of GDP spend on research and development (R&D) to 1.5%.
- In 2020/21, the latest period for when data is available, 0.61% of GDP was spent on R&D.
- This proportion has been declining for several years.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
The government is still firmly committed to increasing spending on research and development (R&D) to 1.5% of GDP, despite a decline in R&D spend as a proportion of GDP stretching back to 2018.
This according to Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Dr Blade Nzimande who was speaking at the National Research Foundation awards ceremony on 31 August.
He said spending on R&D was critical for developing the economy.
"Science, technology, and innovation are critical to have a competitive and sustainable economy and for addressing the many societal challenges we face as a country and a continent."
Given this, Nzimande expressed the country's commitment to increasing a proportion of economic activity dedicated to R&D.
"We are firmly committed to liberating both public and private investment to increase gross domestic investment in research and development to the 1.5% as per the National Development Plan," he said.But for the last few years where data has been made available, the proportion of GDP being spent on R&D has been decreasing.
Each year, the Department of Science and Innovation, in collaboration with Statistics SA, releases an R&D survey where the proportion figure is released.
There has been a steady decrease in the proportion of GDP allocated to R&D from 2017/18 where 0.83% of GDP was spent on R&D to 2020/21, the latest period where data is available where R&D spending stood at 0.61% of GDP.
The decline has been gross as well as proportional as R5 billion less is being spent on R&D over the same four-year period.
Nzimande acknowledged private sector investment in R&D had been declining over several years.
"We do need to encourage investment by the private sector - it's been declining over the last few years."
He said the department's decision to extend the research tax incentive until the end of 2023 formed part of this goal.
The incentive was introduced in 2006 but has undergone many changes in the years since then.
Currently, it allows for a deduction equal to 150% of the expenditure incurred directly for R&D, and provides an accelerated deduction on capital expenditure for R&D.
The level of expenditure on R&D has fluctuated in the years since the tax incentive was introduced.
In a report from July this year, the chairperson of the National Advisory Council on Innovation, Tilson Manyoni, highlighted the lack of notable technological dynamism in the business sector.
"Within the business sector, there is no indication of any major areas that are exhibiting a notable technological dynamism," he said.
Manyoni added there were lower patent numbers in the country than a decade ago.
