STAATSKOERANT, 24 JANUARIE 2014
No. 37261
The Film and Television Production incentive came into effect in 2008 to support the local
film industry to contribute to South Africa's economic development, build South Africa's
international profile and increase its creative and technical skills base through attracting
large-budget films, TV productions and post-production work to South Africa. Although there
has been a notable increase in the number of productions approved annually, the incentive
seems inadequate to drive major investment. This is because it is still a rebate rather than a
direct funding mechanism to induce investment, and the threshold for eligibility is very high
for TV and emerging content creators.
The other two incentives, Manufacturing Investment Programme (MIP) and Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO) are only
in
relation
to ICT support sectors such as
manufacturing.
10.3
Research, Development and Innovation
Investment in the production of local knowledge, and ICT goods and services
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has been proactive in promoting
development, research and innovation (RDI) through various strategic policies, programmes
and plans as demonstrated through the ICT Strategy adopted in 2007. Furthermore, the DST
has also developed the ICT Research, Development and Innovation Roadmap to support the
country's strategic objective in increasing the impact of ICTs on society and in developing
the economy.
It goes beyond the confines of research
laboratories to users, suppliers and consumers everywhere - in government, business and
non-profit organisations across borders, across sectors and across institutions.
Innovation extends beyond R&D activity.
For the ICT industry, IP is not only a significant enabler, it is also an instrument of trade. IP
can serve as a real barrier to entry for small and medium enterprises. The Global trade in IP
licence is worth more than 600 billion pounds sterling and in countries such as the UK, it
accounted for 137 billion pounds in 2008.
IP ownership is an outcome of Research & Development. Despite its designing and
manufacturing capacity, the R&D Intensity of South Africa is still below the global norm of
2%, having been stabilised at around 0,92% of GDP over the past few years.
The dti's study on the Economic Contribution of Copyright-Based Industries in South Africa
revealed that the direct contribution of the copyright-based industries to the economy, in
terms of value-added, is 4,11%, while their total indirect contribution, in terms of output, is
5,49% (known as the production-induced effect). On the other hand, with regards to
employment, the total direct effect is 4,08%, while its production-induced effect would be
14.52%. Countries such as Brazil and China have supported R&D and IP investment
through: incentives; implementing quotas for local technology and local content applied to
spectrum licensees; consortia to promote the development of local technologies and
contribution of gross revenues by operators to fund technological development in the ICT
sector.
10.4 Attracting Investment
Transforming the ICT industry
In South Africa, transformation is a critical policy goal to achieve representative participation
in the economy, particularly in the ICT sector, which has historically been dominated by one
group. However, transformation is not an issue of race alone. It has to be looked at from a
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