NSTF’s EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ACCOMPANIED MINISTER NZIMANDE’S ON HIS WORKING VISIT TO CHINA TO ATTEND THE SECOND BELT AND ROAD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (BRTS) CONFERENCE FROM 6-15 JUNE 2025

Minister Nzimande visited China to participate in the Second BRST Conference and its associated Ministerial Meetings from 6-15 June 2025. The theme for the conference was “Together for Innovation, Development for All – Jointly Building a Scientific and Technological Innovation Community for the Belt and Road”.

A high-level South African delegation was invited to support the Minister during the visit to ensure a strategic leadership role for South Africa in contributing to the BRST partnership agenda. The NSTF Executive Director, Ms Jansie Niehaus was one of the delegates.

The BRST Conference puts emphasis on building a scientific and technological innovation community for the Belt and Road and introduce new collaboration programmes as measures to institutionalise the BRI cooperation in various science and technology fields.

The visit programme included meetings with government agencies in Beijing, the BRST Conference in Chengdu, and innovation enterprises in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Of particular importance to NSTF was the visit to the Chinese Association of Science and Technology (CAST) – NSTF’s counterpart. The Minister stated that SA wants to learn from the Chinese experience in such areas as science popularisation and building a national consensus on the importance of science, enhancing science coordination across government, developing the next generation of scientific talent, and science careers and education.

Part of the delegation included senior executives from the entities of the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) and SA’s National System of Innovation (NSI) such as the National Research Foundation (NRF), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), and the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), the South African Couuncil for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP), the NSTF, as well as a specialist in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) from the University of the Free State.