South Africa's investment in research and development (R&D) grew to R22.2-billion in 2011/12, an increase of R2-billion over the previous year that maintained the country's R&D spending at 0.76% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Department of Science and Technology's latest national R&D survey.
Announcing the results of the survey on Tuesday, Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom said this indicated a bottoming-out of the declining R&D spend of the last few years, from a high of 0.95% of GDP in 2006. "We anticipate that we are turning the corner and starting to increase the level of investment in R&D once again in South Africa," Hanekom said in a statement.
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