Public-private partnerships that support local innovation are instrumental to the growth of the country's economy.
This is according to Imraan Patel, Department of Science and Technology (DST) deputy director-general for socio-economic innovation partnerships.
Patel called on the private sector to back local innovation during the European Union (EU) South Africa Innovation Week, an event co-funded by the DST and the EU-SA Dialogue Facility.
According to Patel, public-private partnerships for appropriate technology development are crucial to addressing the country's needs.
"Government has introduced a tax incentive to help reduce the after-tax price of research and development (R&D), thus creating an incentive for companies, especially small-medium enterprises, to increase investment in R&D," he said.
Held under the theme, "Supporting SA-EU knowledge triangle partnerships between academia, industry and government to boost innovation", the policy dialogue is aimed at sharing knowledge to further innovation and cooperation between the EU and South Africa.
The policy dialogue also seeks to explore potential for further cooperation between South Africa and the EU through the establishment of centres of competence and twinning centres as a basis for technology development and commercialisation partnerships between industry, government and academia.
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