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S Africa can be a major IT player: Narayana Murthy

Fakir Hassen

South Africa could become a significant player in the global information technology industry if certain conditions are met, according to N R Narayana Murthy, chairman of Infosys Technologies.

Murthy was the chief guest at a seminar entitled "India's value proposition in IT for South Africa," held at Gallagher Estates in Johannesburg.

The seminar was one of several organised in conjunction with the Made in India Show, being hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry, where 90 exhibitors are displaying a wide range of products.

Murthy outlined the tremendous changes and improvement in quality of life that the advent of computers and the Internet had brought about in all spheres, including business. He highlighted the success stories of India in this regard.

"For South Africa to become a significant player in the area of software, looking at the export market and the G7 countries, they need to address the availability of manpower, quality process in technology and tools," Murthy said after the seminar.

"In the short term, perhaps the South African companies could have an alliance with the Indian companies, whereby they can use the resources of Indian companies, with the front ending being done by South African companies, because they have good infrastructure, good power, good airports, good telephone systems, and hotels," he added.

Murthy emphasised, however, that in the medium and longer term, South Africans should be empowered in the IT field.

"I strongly believe if software has to add value to South Africa, then it has to create employment for South Africans and not for Indians."

"I think if South Africa does not have the required skilled manpower today, perhaps in the short term it could look at using the power of the Indian companies for two or three years, but in the longer term it has to be South Africans, because in the end, unless you can create jobs for your own people, it is not worth running industries," he said.

Murthy spoke glowingly of two South African IT projects. "The South African Mint is a great example of using technology. I believe it is the most modern one (in the world) and it compares most favorably with the most advanced mint in the world, which is the United States Mint, and being in that position is something the South Africans can be proud of."

"The project of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to bring the power of the Internet and IT to more schools in remote rural areas in the Kwazulu-Natal province and to provide e-mail and other access is an extraordinary scheme. In my opinion I think this needs to be replicated throughout South Africa, so that all the children of South Africa can share in the benefit of that," he said.

In terms of education and training in IT, Murthy said South Africa could learn from countries like India, Singapore, United States and Britain.

"You need to see how these countries have mounted campaigns to generate the required number of technical talent. In the case of India in particular we made sure fairly early that all institutes of higher learning had IT and computer science (as options). We made sure there was a separate course for masters in computer applications, which is there in a large number of colleges in the country."

"I would say these experiences of the Indian education system, the successes and the failure, both need to be studied by South Africa and perhaps the positive lessons from those could be used by South Africa," Murthy concluded.

Indo-Asian News Service

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