For a company that is still in its
infancy and working hard to find its footing in the fiercely contested ‘beauty
pageant’ for foreign direct investment (FDI), Botswana Innovation Hub put
together a compelling bid for the 2014 International Association of Science
Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP) Africa Division Conference and went on to successfully
host the event. Appropriately themed, ‘Science and Technology Park’s expanding
economic frontiers in Africa.’ The Director General of IASP Luis Sanz
applauded the company for hosting a conference that achieved its primary goal
of highlighting the role of science and technology parks as, “complex
structures for professional innovation support and helping to achieve local and
regional economic development objectives.”
The bid to host the conference was
made a year earlier at the 30th annual IASP conference in Racife,
Brazil and at the time Botswana Innovation Hub was an affiliate member of the worldwide
network of science parks and areas of innovation. The affiliate member status was
conferred on account of the fact that construction of the local science park
had barely commenced, the company was still growing its active membership numbers
and partnerships that offer professional innovation support and programmes that
cultivate a vibrant innovation ecosystem.
The company’s ambitious bid and
successful conference is a powerful declaration of its presence and statement
of intent by the relatively new player in the global economic sphere and the use
of science and technology parks as special purpose vehicles for economic
diversification. Botswana Innovation Hub has been established as part of a game
changing national ensemble that has been put together to play a key role in the
country’s economic diversification drive. The company is set to transform
Botswana into a technology-driven and knowledge-based economy through
attraction of FDI in technology transfer and adaption, research
commercialization and fostering a stronger national system of innovation and
technology entrepreneurship development.
The success of the 2014 IASP
Africa Division is a demonstration of the company’s resolve to play in the
major league of the global economy and has left a lasting legacy for Botswana
Innovation Hub. While the many benefits from conference attendance are hard to
quantify, the local economic benefits of flights, lodging, subsistence and sale
of art and craft are undeniable. There is also the networking, the opportunity
to build new partnerships, strengthen innovation strategies and promote
world-class research and the opportunity for the company to attract FDI inflows
and spur knowledge-based economic growth.
The major outcome of the conference however came a month after the
conference when Botswana Innovation Hub CEO Alan Boshwaen announced that the
IASP Executive Board declared that it has bestowed full member credentials on Botswana Innovation Hub, “for its
fulfilment of all conditions of being operational, including having active
innovation programmes such as FSVC, MIC, Clean Tech, SAiS, making tangible
progress in construction of the park and having an active member list
comprising academic institutions, public and private sector partners, small and
large businesses and a growing list of anchor tenants that have signed up to
locate in the park.”
IASP membership confers full IASP accreditation
on Botswana Innovation Hub, international visibility, global networking and
access to a broad knowledge base with a formidable multiplier of resources and
opportunities. It grants powers on the company to influence policy and the
agenda of the global science and technology park association as well as
engender transformation of the local economy to a technology driven and
knowledge-based one that attracts the FDI flows and contributes to the
country’s economic development and competitiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment