FUTURE OF SA BELONGS TO YOUNG INNOVATIVE PEOPLE – DEPUTY MINISTER MASINA

FUTURE OF SA BELONGS TO YOUNG INNOVATIVE PEOPLE – DEPUTY MINISTER MASINA

The Deputy Minister of Trade and industry, Mr Mzwandile Masina says the future of South Africa belongs to young innovative people whose creativity will take the country’s capability of competing effectively on the global economic arena to the next level.  Masina was speaking during his visit to the South African Bureau of Standards’ (SABS) Design Institute in Pretoria today. 

The visit was aimed at gaining insight into the institute’s work to assist entrepreneurs  fine-tune their brands and develop effective marketing strategies with the purpose of growing the country’s international competitiveness and export capability.

“I was impressed to see a group of young people whose creativity contributes in developing the capacity of our entrepreneurs to produce high-standards goods that can compete in the international markets. The future of this country belongs to young innovative people who can put their creativity to good use in order to benefit the country.  Innovation is at the heart of government’s initiatives aimed at transforming and growing the county’s economy,” said Masina.

He added that government was in the process of integrating the South African economy with the rest of the world and innovation would play a major role in raising the country’s international stature and competitiveness.

“Any nation that does not continuously produce something new is not going to hold its own economically in the world.  Innovation is very important and that is the reason why it is one of the 6is that characterise our work as government to grow our economy. Others are industrialisation, infrastructure, investment, inclusion and integration. These are all interlinked to achieve the goals of the country’s National Development Plan and the Industrial Policy Action Plan,” said Masina.

He expressed his wish to see the ideas that are born and nurtured at the institute contributing significantly in boosting various industries of the country’s economy, particularly the manufacturing sector in order to boost the productive side of the economy.

“Institutions like this and the creative ideas that are being nurtured in them will play a critical role in taking our Black Industrialists Programme forward,” emphasised Masina.

The Chief Executive Officer of SABS, Dr Boni Mehlomakulu said the Design Institute was repositioned to play a role in creating a pipeline of future industrialists in response to the challenge of youth unemployment.

“In order for us to address the issue of unemployment in this country we need to create new industries. But new industries are not going to come from the existing terrain and the existing players. We have to innovate and nurture new ideas and make sure that we invest in these new ideas in order to create new Sasols for this country. In this way we will be able to create new opportunities to develop our economy and beneficiate natural wealth. It is imperative that to develop our institutional capacity to enable innovation to happen and the Design Institute is core to that development,” said Mehlomakulu