6 August 2008
Boane — Mozambique's Minister of Science and Technology, Venancio Massingue, on Wednesday urged measures to ensure that "science makes a real contribution to the country's social and economic development".
Addressing the opening of a session of his Ministry's Coordinating Council, held in Boane district, 30 kilometres west of Maputo, Massingue said that education and research institutions, as well as the local bodies of the ministry, "should be able to identify the challenges and opportunities inherent to the various stages of development and to generate appropriate solutions".
These objectives, he added, should be reached by consolidating and implementing the National Science, Technology and Innovation System (SNCTI). The government hoped this system would produce solutions for some of the most pressing concerns of Mozambique, including making appropriate technologies available that could be absorbed by small and medium companies.
Other priorities, Massingue continued, were to improve the knowledge of the country's ecosystems and natural resources, make better use of water resources, and to increase efficiency in the generation and use of electricity.
Science and technology also had a key role to play in the green revolution advocated by the government. Here, said Massingue, the priorities included raising agricultural production and productivity, reducing post-harvest losses, and improving the capacity to preserve and store foodstuffs.
To tackle all these varied challenges, the Minister stressed, it was essential that all the links in the system - the managers, the researchers, the schools and the productive sector - should work together to ensure that the available resources are used rationally.
A programme to consolidate the SNCTI is under way, Massingue revealed, which consists in upgrading research infrastructures, and setting up technological development centres and science and technology parks. The centres and parks are expected to generate knowledge, revenue, employment and self-employment.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
