Research commissioned by the DTI's Trade and Industry South Africa (TISA) Electrotechnical Unit shows there are substantial opportunities and economic potential for SA in the global electrotechnical arena.
TISA recently released two reports on SA's electrotechnical contract manufacturing industry and the software market. These reports form part of TISA's Customised Sector Programmes (CSP), designed to develop, integrate and maximise the impact of the electrotechnical sector, both nationally and globally.
One of TISA's key roles is to facilitate the development of strategic partnerships with industry, within the DTI, with other government departments and with stakeholders to encourage growth. This will be achieved through integrated strategies and actions that assist priority sectors such as ICT and electronics.
Using the research findings, TISA will then identify key constraints and opportunities and draw up integrated and comprehensive strategic objectives. Consultation with interested stakeholders will help flesh out the Customised Sector Programmes.
A standardised methodology and manual for the development of CSPs or sector strategies, will generate the following institutional benefits:
* International best practice in the development of sector strategies.
* Consistency and coherency of sector strategies.
* Retention of institutional memory.
* As a tool to aid institutional learning in the development and implementation of sector strategies.
* Institutional cost savings and higher productivity, resulting from all of the above, both in human resource and budgetary terms.
* Improved sector development as a result of well formulated strategies.
Contract manufacturing research study
The study focused on original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers and PCB and component manufacturers.
The value of the global electrotechnical contract manufacturing (ECM) industry is estimated to be between $70 billion and $90 billion a year. The South African industry has revenues of around R750 million a year. The whole sub-sector comprises about 150 companies, of which 18 are large players and 66 are SMMEs entities.
Software market research study
SA's software industry, valued at R11.6 billion in 2003, is expected to grow by 11.5% over the next five years. The export software market is valued at only 6% of the domestic market and the five largest software vendors control 40% of all software revenue.
All these factors represent opportunities for the local industry and the complete report offers detailed gap and market lever analyses, as well as critical success factors.
Both research reports are available on the SAVANT Web site at http://www.savant.co.za.
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