The incubation and development of information and communication technologies holds great economic value to South Africans.

This was the resounding message that came from the second day of the Nelson Mandela Bay ICT Summit, hosted at NMMU.

The university’s Prof Richard Haines, however, called on universities to change their mindset regarding incubation.

He highlighted the initiatives and incentives provided by leading institutions in the United States to attract the top minds.

This included special programmes that aimed to provide a compelling case for technologists to relocate to cities that appealed to them.

Haines felt that Port Elizabeth was lagging behind the rest of the country due to its Cinderella complex – a reference to the desire to be “saved” as opposed to forging its own path.

Indications of this, he said, were an over-reliance on the Coega IDZ for economic development, the flow of financial and human capital from the city, a reluctance by investors to fund high- risk ventures and the scarcity of venture capital.

He suggested that Port Elizabeth adopt the “Seattle option”, under which incentives and infrastructure would be created to attract and retain the right kind of innovators to the city.

He proposed that it had the potential to establish technology clusters, but that it also needed more co-ordinated interventions and dialogue around this.

A skills and ITC audit should form part of this strategy, he said, with a particular focus on the black economic empowerment component of the sector.

Haines’s viewpoint was echoed by Odette Potter, general manager of Cape Town’s Bandwidth Barn – an ICT incubation project.

She bemoaned the lack of funding available for innovation projects, but agreed that clustering was the right approach to take.

Her project has supported 198 companies in six years, of which 64% are still in existence, and with 30% still within the incubator.

These companies had generated turnover in the past year of R40-million, which pointed to the potential in this sector.

Potter said the industry standard of ejecting enterprises after two years was too brief, and suggested that a five-year period would be optimal.

Steve Giddings of Infodev, a global World Bank project that aims to develop the ICT sector, said South Africa was falling behind its competitors, which needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

He presented examples of simple technologies that had transformed industries from Kenya, Senegal, Brazil and even Siberia.

“It is very important for incubators to be strongly supported going forward,” he said.

He said ICT was vital to developing a country’s competitiveness and that incubation was an important tool.