SPEECH
OF THE NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY
I would like to welcome all of you
who are directly or indirectly involved with Science and Technology to this
workshop. I am pleased to note that UNESCO is present today to guide us in the
framing of our national policy and that we have amongst us two distinguished experts
- Professor Wilsdon, Professor of
Science and Democracy, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex and Associate Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy., and MrKepner, Research
Ecologist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
I
would like to start by quoting a UN General Assembly resolution adopted in 2008
stating “, Science and Technology
including Information and Communications Technologies, are vital for the
achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including the
Millennium Development Goals, and for the full participation of developing
countries in the global economy”
If
we look at the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), they refer to food
security, reducing under-five mortality, reducing maternal mortality, reversing
the spread of HIV/AIDS and halving the proportion of people without access to
safe water. The attainment of all these objectives dependsto a very large
extent on Science and Technology and the development and use and dissemination of
new scientific and technological knowledge.
According
to the statistics of UNCTAD,
·
High-income
countries fund more than 80 per cent of the World’s Research and Development
(R&D) and spend 1.5 to 3.8 per cent of their GDP on research and
development, while most developing countries spend less than 0.5 per cent, with
some as low as 0.01 per cent; and
·
An
enormous gap exists between rich and poor nations in terms of the number of
scientists and engineers, the number of research institutions, tertiary science
enrolment, journal publications and
patent applications.
In his report on the application of Science and
Technology to meet the Millennium Development
Goals, the Secretary General of UNCTAD requested governments to consider among
others–
(a) strengthening national science advisory bodies and their
linkages to provide expert opinion to the Government on a regular basis;
(b) promoting
public awareness of the benefits and risks of new and emerging technologies;
(c) encouraging universities and research institutions to
contribute to national development;
(d) increasing
investment in tertiary science education and adopting concrete measures to
increase the enrolment of girls and women; and
(e) establishingcentres of excellence, technology incubators and
parks to apply knowledge and to facilitate commercialization and diffusion of
technology;
If
we consider the Mauritian context, there are some facts on which I would like
to invite some serious reflections. I would like to mention some of these facts
obtained from Statistics Mauritius and the Mauritius Research Council : –
1.
the
percentage of students opting for S & T subjects at O and A levels has almost
stagnated around 30 to 34 % over several years showing a relatively lesser
interest for Science and Technology as
compared to other subjects;
2.
the
number of girls enrolled in Science and Technolgy is 13-16% of total enrolment
as compared to boys which is 17-22% of
total enrolment , indicating some gender disparity in access to ;
3.
as at year 2012, Mauritius had 110 publications/million
inhabitants, which is below countries
such as South Africa with 262 publications/million
inhabitants and Singapore with 3011 publications/million
inhabitants;
4.
the
PhD production rate of Mauritius (number of PhDs/Million of inhabitants) was 17
in 2011, in comparison to 23 for South
Africa, 43 for Brazil, 53 for Taiwan, 140 for USA, 221 for Australia;
5.
most
of the funding on Research and Development comes from Government; and
6.
the
estimated average expenditure on research and development in Mauritius amounts to about to 0.4 % (average of 1.2
billion rupees annually) of the GDP, whereas the expenditure in developing countries ranges from 2 to 4% .
These are some of the issues that this workshop will have to discuss. Some measures have already been initiated by Government, namely:-
· An amount of Rs 100M has been dedicated for research in priority areas in the 2014 budget;
· An additional amount of Rs 228M has been budgeted over the next five years for the setting up of an IIT in Mauritius. The IIT will introduce high quality engineering and science education and increase research and the number of PhDs;
· the
University of Mauritius has been mandated to set up a Faculty of Ocean Studies;
·
financial provision has been made for
the construction of a planetarium with the support of the Government of India ;
·
the Mauritius Research Council (amendment)
Bill will be introduced shortly to provide for a new framework for research
with the setting up of a National Advisory Committee on Research and Innovation
comprising international scientists and Nobel laureates and a National Research
and Innovation Fund. It will also foster greater private sector participation
in research and innovation;
·
3 National research chairs have been
appointed and a Best Scientist Award introduced since 2011;
·
young scientists have been given the
opportunity to participate in the Lindau
Nobel Laureates meeting annually. It is a matter of pride that last year
one Chemistry student from University of Mauritius was selected to attend the
meeting and this year, one medical doctor who graduated from the University of
Mauritius has been selected by the Lindau Council to attend the meeting in July
2014. This is an international selection among candidates applying from all
over the world;
·
a
Centre for Biomedical & Biomaterials Research
(CBBR), a first multi-disciplinary research Centre of its kind in Mauritius,
was set up in 2010 and housed at the University of Mauritius; and
- Mauritius became a partner with 7 other African countries in Square Kilometre Array Project (SKA), the biggest and most powerful telescope to be built in the World. It will host an antenna of the telescope.
The
purpose of this workshop is to define the policy and strategy for Science and
Technology up to 2025, as Science, Technology and Innovation are critical and
vitally important to address the challenges of sustainable development,
disaster management, the Ocean economy and increase the competitiveness of
industry and services sectors.
Today
Mauritius has moved into an efficiency-driven stage of development implying
that more efficient production processes and better product quality need to be
developed. Based on World Competitiveness report 2013/4 Mauritius was ranked 45th
(out of 148 countries). At this
point, local competitiveness is driven to a great extent by higher quality
education and training, market size, technology readiness and innovation.
For
Mauritius to become an innovation driven country, challenges that have to be
addressed include capacity for innovation, quality of scientific research institutions
including number of scientific and technical publications, private sector
spending on R&D, University – Industry
collaboration in Research &Development, availability of scientists and
engineers and number of PCT patents, increasing the ratio of applications/million
population and most importantly creating a strong research culture.
I
look forward to the outcome of this workshop which should lead us to a shared
vision and objectives and give a new momentum to Science, Technology and Innovation.
I have now the pleasure to declare
this workshop open.
Thank you.
Dr
R. Jeetah Ministry
of Tertiary Education, Science, Research and Technology