New Gauteng initiative to stimulate innovation in SME sector | ITWeb
The Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) has collaborated with KTN Global Alliance Africa, a unit of the UK government, to establish the Gauteng Innovation Action Plan.
The initiative seeks to increase innovation capacity and create an inclusive small and medium enterprise (SME) ecosystem, to drive economic growth in the province.
According to KTN Global Alliance Africa, the Gauteng Innovation Action Plan examines the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and businesses. It maps out a series of recommendations to strengthen the capacity and resilience of the Gauteng SME ecosystems through increased collaboration and partnerships, it adds.
The GPG has embarked on a modernisation journey through the introduction of a fourth industrial revolution strategy that envisions Gauteng as the ‘Silicon Valley of Africa’, to drive sustainable economic growth and prosperity for Gauteng citizens, businesses and government.
Gauteng is SA’s economic powerhouse, generating roughly 35% of the country’s GDP. Despite this, the level of unemployment, poverty and inequality remain persistently high in the province.
The new innovation plan is a product of wide stakeholder engagement and contributions from the public sector, academia and industry over the last few months. It is focused on strengthening the local innovation ecosystem through clear short-, medium- and long-term objectives, which speak to job creation, poverty reduction and increased collaboration opportunities.
“Innovation and entrepreneurship have been identified as the key drivers of Gauteng’s economic development and there is an opportunity to create collaborative action to strengthen the local innovation ecosystem and its capacity to generate economic benefits for all parts of Gauteng,” says Dr Nee-Joo Teh, project director of KTN Global Alliance Africa.
Some of the challenges identified during the process of developing the innovation plan included inconsistent access to funding, support and resources, as well as a lack of suitable mentorship opportunities for SMEs, notes KTN Global Alliance Africa.
The plan proposes several interventions to circumvent these challenges – which can be implemented by the local technology, science and innovation community.
These include networking events, mentorship models, awards programmes and competitions, focusing on female innovators, implementing regional innovation support programmes, training and developing local innovation champions, and holding open innovation challenges to accelerate net zero solutions.
“The extent to which countries can successfully catalyse and harness innovation is fundamentally connected to the ability to tap into local knowledge through collaboration, cooperation and long-term networking arrangements,” says Antony Phillipson, British high commissioner to South Africa.
“The Gauteng Innovation Action Plan provides us with a clear roadmap of how we can better cooperate with key stakeholders across Gauteng’s rapidly-growing innovation ecosystem to deliver growth and prosperity for all.”
Government has on numerous occasions touted the importance of the use of innovation and new technologies to advance economic development in SA’s SME sector.
The sector is in the process of lobbying government to create a framework to support start-ups and spur competitiveness, through a proposed Start-up Act. The Act seeks to create new laws for the creation and development of start-ups based on creativity, innovation and the use of new technologies.