Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor told journalists at Parliament on Thursday that while R&D spending rose in nominal terms, from R18.6 billion in 2007\/08 to R21 billion in 2008\/09, gross spending as a percentage of GDP slipped from 0.93 percent to 0.92 percent.<\/p>\n
“We are worried that this percentage of GDP, which is the most-widely accepted indicator of competitiveness of a country’s economy, is not growing at the level that we wanted to,” Pandor said.<\/p>\n
Her department has set an R&D target of one percent of GDP.<\/p>\n
The figures are contained in the 2008\/09 National Survey ofResearch and Experimental Development, tabled by Pandor at the media briefing.<\/p>\n
In terms of GDP, spending on R&D rose steadily from 1997 (0.60 percent) to a high in 2006 of 0.95 percent, but has dropped over the past two years.<\/p>\n
The survey notes that “few OECD [the international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries have a GERD [gross expenditure on R&D] equivalent to less than one percent of GDP”.<\/p>\n
A table in the document issued by the department shows spending by Sweden, Finland, Japan and the United States on R&D exceeds three percent of GDP.<\/p>\n
Pandor said R&D spending in South Africa needed to increase by R1.7 billion to reach the one percent target. <\/p>\n
The survey results would now be probed “to establish why we’re not meeting that one percent target and to look at where it is we may be falling behind.”<\/p>\n
She said South Africa’s skills shortage was a “major problem” in this regard. Another key constraint was the low proportion of researchers in relation to the total employed population.<\/p>\n
According to the survey, South Africa has 1.4 researchers per 1000 workers, compared to China (1.9), Argentina (2.9), Australia (8.5) and Japan (11), among others. <\/p>\n
Of the R21 billion spent on R&D in 2008\/09, the bulk — R12.3 billion –was spent by business. In nominal terms, this was an increase of about 14.8 percent over the previous year.<\/p>\n