Daka appeals for funding of technical colleges
By Allan Mulenga and Margaret Mtonga
Wednesday July 23, 2008 [04:00]
SCIENCE and technology minister Peter Daka has implored industries to augment the government efforts in funding colleges offering technical courses. In an interview yesterday, Daka said industries needed to spearhead the promotion of science and innovations in institutions of learning.
“It is clear that without science and technology, industries and researchers will not meet the needed target of production in the country, as this can only come from funding institutions providing technical training to young engineers and scientists,” he said.
And officiating at the National Science and Technology Council organised colloquium on ‘creating and enhancing linkages between research and development centres and industry’, Daka said there was need for Zambian industries to build the country’s comparative strengths and advantages in agriculture, natural resources, health and engineering.
He said industries should be able to produce value-added products as well as be at the forefront of the increasingly knowledge based industries.
“How we succeed in maximising the gains from our national research and development effort will largely determine our ability to secure the future we all want for Zambia,” he said.
Daka urged scientists to be innovative in their researches as it was through innovation that they would generate ideas and commercialise their work.
“Innovation involves better focus on research and development in developing new products and services and improving production methods. It also covers developing better work practices improving management skills and making better use of the existing equipment and facilities or using these in a unique way,” he said.
Daka said since innovation covered all sectors and played a crucial role in creating jobs and generating wealth, it was a key force to the Zambian economy.
Daka said it was the more reason the nation needed to develop an innovative culture, saying innovation would only come if industry and research as well as development institutions operated in an environment that was rewarding.
Labels: PETER DAKA, TECHNICAL COLLEGES, TECHNOLOGY
Read more...
IBM's next big thing: Africa
By Marc Gunther, senior writer
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Stereotypical images of Africa, as a global backwater plagued by poverty, disease, conflict and corruption, hide some encouraging realities. Democracy has taken root across the continent. The African economy is expanding briskly. So, too, are opportunities for businesses.
That's why IBM (Charts, Fortune 500) announced this week that it's expanding its stake in sub-Saharan Africa. The $91-billion-a-year technology giant will open a research and innovation center in Johannesburg for its biggest business customers. It will donate what it says is by far the most powerful supercomputer in Africa to a nonprofit computing center in Cape Town. Working with the poverty-fighting organization CARE, IBM will roll out a technology platform to reduce the costs of microfinance.
Finally, it will expand a mentoring program at 20 African universities, working with other multinationals, including Cisco (Charts, Fortune 500) and FedEx (Charts, Fortune 500). Altogether, IBM said it would increase its investment in its African operations by about $120 million over the next two years.
While U.S. companies have operated in Africa for decades, IBM is a bellwether. When ExxonMobil (Charts, Fortune 500) builds a pipeline in central Africa, that's because there's oil to be extracted. Coca-Cola (Charts, Fortune 500) expands because people have a few cents to spend each day on a Coke. Other firms export diamonds, cocoa or coffee.
But a technology company like IBM - which no longer sells to consumers or small companies - is betting on the growth of other businesses that will buy its hardware, software and consulting services.
"Remember, we're a business," said Nick Donofrio, executive vice president for innovation and technology at IBM. Mark Harris, general manager of IBM South Africa, said. "Africa is a huge market and it's mostly untapped." Yes, IBM has philanthropic ventures there as well, but there's no mistaking IBM's intent.
The company's big customers in Africa include banks, telecommunications firms, and retailers, all sectors that are growing and need more sophisticated technology. According to Harris, they will now be able to turn to what IBM calls a "High Performance on Demand Solutions Lab" in Johannesburg for help with complex problems. Researchers, meanwhile, will be able to use the company's "14-teraflop Blue Gene/P" supercomputer to study the impact of climate change or the spread of disease.
IBM unveiled its plans at a conference called "Africa: Open for Business" that it organized and sponsored in New York. "I can assure you that these are the first of many things you will hear from IBM," said Donofrio. The New York gathering, which brought together businesses, governments and nonprofits, capped off a yearlong study of Africa that unfolded at similar sessions in Atlanta, Beijing, Cape Town, Dakar, Nairobi, Paris, Beijing and Atlanta. Even for a firm as sprawling as IBM, that's a big commitment.
What emerged from all the talk was a hopeful view of a region in transition. Africa remains very poor, of course; its 930 million people make up 14% of the globe's population but generate only 2% of its economic output. Fewer than 20% of its people have access to electricity, and modern roads, ports and airports are badly needed.
Even so, Africa's GDP has grown by an average of 5.4% over the past decade. "African growth has outpaced global growth since 2001," said Haiko Alfeld, head of Africa programs for the World Economic Forum. Foreign investment has grown even faster, he said.
According to IBM's report, the number of wireless phone subscribers in Africa has exploded from 10 million to more than 200 million in the last four years. More fundamentally, 40 of the 54 countries in Africa have held multiparty elections in the last several years, a dramatic uptick from the 1970s, when dictators ruled most countries.
If all goes according to plan, IBM's efforts will be felt both by Africa's biggest companies and its newest entrepreneurs. Its mentoring program is aimed at producing more scientists and engineers for a continent that still suffers because thousands of its best-educated young people go elsewhere.
The microfinance work with CARE should provide more access to capital for rural people who want to start small businesses. And IBM will enhance its brand and make more money. What's not to like?
Labels: IBM, TECHNOLOGY
Read more...
Prof Chirwa pledges K16.4bn investment in technology park
By Joan Chirwa
Sunday September 02, 2007 [04:00]
UK-based automotive and aerospace expert Professor Clive Chirwa has pledged an investment of up to two million British Pounds (approximately K16.4 billion) towards the construction of a technology park in Lusaka.
And Prof Chirwa has advised Zambians to insist on having investors who will create a supply chain within the country.
During the Engineering Institute of Zambia (EIZ) symposium in Lusaka on Friday, Prof Chirwa said he was in the process of acquiring land in the country where he would put up a technology park.
"The two million pounds approximately K16.4 billion is my own money and I am just waiting on the response from the President Levy Mwanawasa and the Ministry of Lands on where the piece of land will be allocated," he said.
Prof Chirwa, who presented a paper themed 'Creating National Wealth through Engineering Excellence is the Way Forward for Zambia', said the Zambian government should put in place policies that would promote job creation among investors.
Prof Chirwa, who is also editor-in-chief of the International Journal on Crashworthiness, noted that developing the manufacturing sector was a vital route to the creation of employment in the country, considering the high unemployment levels despite having sufficient qualified individuals.
This year's EIZ symposium focused on the role of the engineering profession in fostering national development.
"We have many engineers in Zambia who have got the capability to do things. We need to increase opportunities for our young engineers," Prof Chirwa said. "The manufacturing sector is the saviour for Zambia. If this sector is developed, our engineers will be able to benefit much because they will be able to work."
Prof Chirwa said Zambia urgently requires a policy for re-generation of industry.
"The problem we have is that we have stuck to a colonial framework for prosperity," Prof Chirwa said. "Government has not offered us policy to move from there up the ladder. Forty-three years after independence, we are still at the same level. We have only managed to achieve political independence, economically, we are still far behind."
Professor Chirwa further said the development of the manufacturing sector could also encourage value addition to locally produced goods.
"The 21st Century is Africa's century. Zambia can move towards being one of the richest countries," Prof Chirwa said. "I propose that every time an investor comes into the country, especially those in the mining sector, government should demand that the particular investor creates companies which can process copper within and not outside. That is when we will see people being employed."
He said the government should also create real think tanks like other countries have done to deliver end-user products.
"Knowledge is extremely important for Zambia to have sustainable development and wealth," Prof Chirwa said. "That is why we need to create real think tanks to deliver end products. The Japanese have done it and I believe we can also do it."
Meanwhile, works and supply minister Kapembwa Simbao said Zambia had sufficient qualified engineers that could turn the country's economy around.
Simbao said Zambia had its own qualified engineers that could positively contribute towards the development of the country.
"There is a tendency that anything foreign in this country is superior," said Simbao. "That should not be the case. We need a strong base in this country where engineers will be able to practice effectively."
Labels: CLIVE CHIRWA, EIZ, TECHNOLOGY
Read more...
Is the U.S. winning back its competitive edge?
A new study finds that American universities are luring technology entrepreneurs from overseas, fueling a $52 billion startup boom.
By Elaine Pofeldt, FSB Magazine senior editor
June 11 2007: 8:39 AM EDT
(FSB Magazine) -- Maybe the U.S. isn't falling as far behind other nations in math and science education as business leaders fear. A new study suggests that American universities are luring more entrepreneurial talent from overseas than many think, fueling a boom in tech startups here.
More than half of the immigrant founders of tech and engineering firms launched in the U.S. between 1995 and 2005 came to the U.S. to further their education, and 53 percent earned their highest degrees in the U.S., according to the just-released research on 1,572 companies, conducted by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit in Kansas City that promotes entrepreneurship. The study was conducted by researchers at Duke University and the University of California at Berkeley. Only 1.6 percent entered this country with the sole goal of starting a business, according to the results.
The findings are significant because a quarter of technology and engineering companies launched in the U.S. between 1995 and 2005 had at least one foreign-born founder, according to the research. These enterprises generated $52 billion in sales and provided jobs to 450,000 workers in 2005.
"Our higher education system has historically attracted talented immigrants from around the world to the United States to study," says Vivek Wadhwa, the lead researcher and executive in residence at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. "The U.S. economy depends on these high rates of entrepreneurship and innovation to maintain its global edge."
Who in the world is entrepreneurial?
Among the company founders surveyed, 96 percent have bachelor's degrees and 74 percent have graduate or postgraduate degrees. "Our research confirms that advanced education in science, technology, engineering and math is correlated with high rates of entrepreneurship and innovation," says Wadhwa. No single school dominated in luring overseas talent.
Most of the immigrant entrepreneurs came from India, the U.K., China, Japan and Germany, either to study or to work for a U.S.-based corporation. They started a new business 13 years after immigrating, on average.
The majority of these startups were in tech hotbeds. The areas that attracted the greatest percentage of immigrant entrepreneurs were Silicon Valley (52 percent), New York City (43 percent) and Chicago (39 percent).
With countries from China to Panama becoming increasingly attractive to entrepreneurs, the U.S. still needs to do more to keep talented immigrants flowing into this country, say some business leaders. Heightened security since Sept. 11 has made it difficult for overseas innovators to move here, and many are setting up shop elsewhere, says Verne Harnish, who frequently does business internationally as the founder of Gazelles, an executive coaching firm for fast-growth companies in Ashburn, Va. "We're just not friendly anymore," he says.
The stalling of the immigration bill, which could have given 12 million undocumented immigrants a chance to secure legal status, makes it even more important to lure international business talent, Harnish says.
"Our population is getting old," he says. "For the sake of this country, we've got to get a bunch of young people here. There's not going to be anyone paying our Social Security and Medicare if we don't get this issue addressed."
Labels: TECHNOLOGY, UNZA
Read more...
Vubwi people using Malawian network
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Tuesday February 13, 2007 [02:00]
THE people of Vubwi in Eastern Province are using the Malawian Celtel network, area member of parliament Eustarckio Kazonga has said. And Kazonga complained about the shortage of health staff in the area. In an interview after a tour of his constituency last Sunday, Kazonga said Vubwi residents were facing communication problems.
“People in my area are using Malawian sim cards because of the absence of the Zambian Celtel network. Now this situation clearly shows that we are promoting Malawian business,” Kazonga said. He said people in Vubwi were forced to make an international call while talking to someone within the country. “When am in my constituency am forced to carry two sim cards one for Zambian Celtel and the other one for Malawi. Am going to liase with my colleagues in the respective ministry so that they can look at this,”Kazonga said.
And Kazonga, who is also local government deputy minister said most hospitals in the area were faced with staff shortage. “Some health posts like Sindamisale have a shortage of health personnel. This hospital has one nurse while Mchenjeza is faced with drug shortage so I will make sure we look at this with my colleagues from the ministry,” Kazonga said. He said a health centre was needed in Kampitsandondo area because of the growing population.
Kazonga said most schools were hit by teacher accommodation problems. “Most schools received new teachers but these teachers have no accommodation, but members of the community have molded some bricks in order to contribute in the construction of teacher’s houses,” said Kazonga.
Labels: ECONOMY, TECHNOLOGY
Read more...
