As South Africa gears itself to achieve 6 percent economic growth by 2010, a top Japanese businessman has highlighted the need for the country to develop engineering skills in order to achieve this, writes Bongani Mlangeni.

Speaking to BuaNews on Monday chief executive officer and Managing Director of Isuzu South Africa Masatoshi Kobayashi said the establishment of a university dedicated to teaching engineering would go a long way towards achieving the economic growth target.

"The challenge faced by the country is the lack of suitable skills in the engineering sector, especially in the automotive sector.

"For example we only manufacture bakkies and heavy weight trucks, while we could also be providing extra heavy weight trucks but the lack of proper skills to fix such trucks in the country is not available and as a result it would not make business sense for us to manufacture such cars," said Mr Kobayashi.

He was attending a gala dinner at the Sun City resort and casino in the North West, hosted for board members of the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) by South African Tourism.

Through the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) the country aims to achieve 6 percent economic growth by 2010 and halve poverty and unemployment by 2014.

The country launched the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) in order to develop and source the critical skills, such as engineering, needed to propel the economy towards achieving AsgiSA's targets.

The establishment of an engineering university, according to Mr Kobayashi, would succeed if people were encouraged from a young age to choose engineering as a career.

"Because many young kids unlike in Japan, like to be doctors, nurses and lawyers, they would need to be encouraged and advised from a very young age of the opportunities in the automotive industry," he said.

Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena has said that engineering education is of prime importance to the economic advancement of all countries, especially in Africa, with a low number of engineers per capita.

For their part, higher education institutions in the country have agreed to increase the number of engineering graduates by an extra 1000 a year, as part of government's plan to deal with the demand for scarce skills in the country.

Government intends to recruit 1 500 engineers, 1000 educational professionals, 3 500 information technology specialist, 5 450 health and medical specialists and 1 500 agricultural science professionals.

Mr Kobayashi said Japan's success in this regard was as a result of its focus in the sector and its establishment of various engineering schools that provided practical training relevant to job needs in the market.

However, South Africa was on the right track with JIPSA, he said, adding that his company was prepared to do everything possible to ensure JIPSA's success.

"When we employ technicians in the company, we also provide them with training to enhance their skills and make sure that their skills are relevant to the needs of the industry," he said.

This training was provided by engineers from Japan, who come to South Africa specifically for this.

Earlier this year, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka visited Japan to discuss how the country could contribute to the successful implementation of AsgiSA.

There, she recommended that South African and Japanese universities establish a forum to facilitate partnerships in human resource and skills development in the context of JIPSA.

"The objectives of the forum would be to increase flows of scientific knowledge and resources between South Africa and Japan through participation in joint education, research and training programmes," said Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka.

She further outlined priority areas that South Africa had identified for cooperation with Japanese universities.

These included high-level engineering and planning skills for network industries, transport, communications and energy - all at the core of the national infrastructure programme.

In terms of trade relations between the two, in 2005, Japan was South Africa's third most important trade partner internationally and for several years has been South Africa's most important trade partner in Asia.

Japan is a large investor in South Africa despite the fact that the investment accounts for 0.3 percent of Japan's outward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Japan considers South Africa a very important trading partner for two reasons.

Of the total sub-Saharan region's GDP, South Africa's economy accounts for 40 percent and South Africa is rich in natural resources, specifically gold, diamonds, platinum and white gold.

"Japan sees South Africa as the gateway to Africa and as such, opportunities in trade and investment are considerably expanded. South Africa is a reliable source of raw materials and is seen as a market for manufactured goods," said the department.

South Africa's main exports to Japan in 2005 included Platinum (35.4 percent), motor vehicle (23 percent), wood chips (10 percent), Aluminium (eight percent), Ferro Alloys (10 percent), Manganese (four percent) and Citrus (1.1 percent).

South African imports from Japan consist mainly of machines, mechanical appliances, vehicles and measuring and photographic equipment.

South Africa exported vehicles worth more than R7 billion to Japan in 2005.

Japan is also a substantial aid donor to South Africa. Bilateral ties between South Africa and Japan are strengthened through The Partnership Forum.