The Meraka Institute - the African Advanced Institute for ICT - has been officially opened at the CSIR in Pretoria.
The institute will focus on skills development and research, and derives its mandate from President Thabo Mbeki`s 2002 State of the Nation Address, in which he announced the concept of an ICT university.
The CSIR notes in a statement that the concept was developed by an inter-ministerial committee and approved by Cabinet in July 2002. In 2004, the CSIR became responsible for implementing the initiative.
The CSIR, which also operates an open source centre, says the institute already has a strong core of existing activities and partnerships.
Among its current initiatives are a Wireless Africa project to research sustainable ICT for developing countries; a Human Language Technologies initiative developing a range of technologies such as speech synthesis and speech recognition technology; and a National Accessibility Portal that uses ICT to help empower people with disabilities.
Speaking at the official opening yesterday, deputy minister of science and technology Derek Hanekom said: "Information and communications technologies have the potential to put government service delivery on a new plane in the areas of education, health and social services, and likewise to put the economy on a new trajectory."
Hanekom says the institute is expected to make a significant contribution to the local ICT landscape, because SA needs to achieve "a pronounced increase in the advanced ICT skills base...through a range of intelligent, targeted and determined interventions".
In addition, he says despite a relatively large IT market in SA, "it is clear that there is relatively little R&D and new technology development".
Communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri says the institute "represents one of the steps taken by South African government to not only address the needs of the first economy, but importantly also addressing the very real and pressing needs of the second economy".
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