I particularly also want to recognize our partners in the biotechnology regional innovation centers who are our co-hosts here today.
I think that we are proud as South Africans to host a conference of this nature in South Africa, on the continent of Africa is one of those exciting places. We were surprised at the World Economic Forum when we looked at the continent of Africa as a whole and found that as peace was being established, we have been able to reduce the conflicts to about 4 or 5 conflicts that remain on the continent. In the last two years we have had 31 safe elections out of the 53 countries on the continent of Africa. It means that parties who have been in power and lost elections have given way to other parties and that presidents are beginning to change with greater regularity than was the case before.
So peace has paved the way for democracy and more importantly, peace and democracy have paved the way for economic growth. The truth of the matter is that, the average growth rate across Africa today is 5.5%, only 3 countries have had negative growth. Africa is beginning to be a place that you can do business with. Its raw materials, its products are coming to the markets in far more legal ways than have been the case before.
What I am saying is that this conference, dealing with a particular sector of the world economy, the biotechnology sector, is a very important one because it is in a sense preparing for a time which is not far away, in which the continent of Africa will come into its own in the World Economy. We will open up the vast array of natural and human resources for an industry such as the biotech industry. South Africa's role in all of this I believe is to be the launching pad into this opportunity that is called Africa.
So all of these conferences and particularly this one, I think must anticipate that eventually our role is going to be a lot more than just planning for the Western Cape, for our five innovation centers and for the country. I think our role will be, to be the incubator for what is possible in the continent as a whole. I want to particularly thank the speakers, those who will be able to pull together some of the lessons that we have learned here, in the country, as well as those who will bring some sense of how the world is moving with regard to biotechnology.
Cape Town as I have said, contains two of these innovation centers. One will be hosting the international innovation center and one that is the product of the work here. I think that the Western Cape has a large concentration of biotech research and knowledge creation possibilities. We are well positioned for the knowledge economy. We have decided about 5, 6, 7 years ago already that if we do not have the vast mines that Gauteng would have, we do not have a bourgeoning primary agricultural economy as we used to have in the past, that our future in the Western Cape lies in the knowledge driven economies. We have identified biotechnology as being particularly important for us, given that two thirds of our countries, biodiversity resides in the Western Cape and it is in fact recognized as one of the biotechnology or biodiversity hotspots in the world.
Our challenge is how do we take this richness, this rich possibility of biotechnology and turn it into business opportunities. Now there is a natural risk aversion in the sector. Its returns take longer than for example other sectors such as ICT's. ICT's have a shorter period before becoming profitable. In, biotechnologies there are quite few procedures to go through. There is a long process of research that must be done and there is a lot of hand holding that is required.
In this regard, we are very fortunate in South Africa where we have had mergers and we have about over 20 Universities. In the Western Cape, there are 5 important Universities with important footprints in this Province and we are very fortunate that we have an academic institutional hand holding exercise and increasingly, I think Government has been able to add to the handholding exercise that is required in order that we all share the risks and make sure that this industry reaches its fullest potential because we have no doubt that when an industry such as this reaches its full potential, its impact is going to be enormous.
In South Africa, the biotechnology is one of those special industries that we have to engage in, because it has the potential to push us over the threshold in terms of the knowledge based economy. It has a high potential as a growth sector, it is a leading edge sector with high tech growth possibilities and I think that, that is what biotechnology allows us to do. Secondly, it creates spin offs, it requires a range of support services and research. Thirdly, it contributes to solutions to challenges such as human health, particularly in the South African and African context with us facing our challenges of HIV & AIDS, of malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases.
We have a special interest in the possibilities that biotechnology offers. Fourthly, in a country, on the continent that is impoverished, food security becomes absolutely critical and again, the possibilities that the biotechnology industry allows us, assist us with what we need to face as challenges. Fifthly, we have to do it in ways which are environmentally sustainable. So those are the expectations I think that we have of you. Those I think are the reasons that between the academic institutions as well as Government, we collectively understand the need to guide this industry, to hold hands, to invest in it and to give it time and nurture it, so that its possibilities can become more apparent.
I have been amazed, just looking at the projections about what will happen with the countries like China for example. It is projected that by 2039, China will be the leading economy in the World. It would have overtaken United States as the largest economy in the world, followed by countries like India, Russia and Brazil. But China's example is important because if you look at it, China has invested heavily in the concept of science parks, attached to Government institutions and attached to Universities. This investment in science sparks means that, China today has 53 National science parks and a 108 regional parks, with 38, 000 businesses emanating from those science sparks, employing in that country, 4, 5 million people.
Now that begins to explain what investments have done, supporting the projections that they will become the largest economy in the world. I am not saying that we can necessarily at this stage compete with China, but that is possibly where our ideals for what can happen on the continent of Africa and what we need to work towards should be focused on.
I am sure that the networking opportunity that comes from here means that we cannot be ultra competitive amongst ourselves as specialists in the biotechnology field. We need to be able to share knowledge, we need to create areas of specialty, we need to make sure that there is enough variety and not too much duplication in what we are doing and where there is duplication we need to find ways to cooperate. I think that is the lesson that we have found out in South Africa and I think that, that is the lesson that certainly we have to find out in the world.
We must also understand that our South African conditions are going to be completely different to say those in the U.S. I just visited the Chicago Medical District, which has showed me that we are not there yet. We have to work within our own limitations. We do not have the ability like a Chicago Medical District to buy up real estate in Chicago and expand continuously into one district with its own police force, its own water supplier, its own electricity security and other related developments.
We do not have the ability to create labs that we give to companies to incubate them and for them to spend a year, 2 or 3 years, simply experimenting and hopefully, with all the assistance and the encouragement, that they suddenly become business that can now go into another part of the Medical District and establish their own buildings.
I think we have to be realistic to be able to operate within the conditions that exist within South Africa and the Western Cape. So somewhere between what China is doing and what a country like the U.S.A is doing, if we look at Chicago Medical District, we have to say, we have ourselves, we have a Government that does not have too much resources but is willing to invest in it, we have Universities, we have some of the best medical centers anywhere in the world, we have some of the best academics that the world has to offer.
So how do we put all of those together within our limitations and make the biotechnology industry a burgeoning one. How do we do it, based very much within South Africa but having aspirations of the whole of the continent, using at this stage still largely, the South African biodiversity, the South African academic experience but aspiring to being able to utilize the entire African continent in order for us to become leaders in biotechnology anywhere in the world?
I am sure that as our continent becomes absolutely peaceful and absolutely democratic, we are going to find a rush towards Africa to engage in its own biodiversity. I think to be absolutely in committed to this, we must consider if the rest of the world were to re-colorize Africa in a biotechnology sense, let us not allow ourselves to be caught up in our own problems and lose out on the opportunity to understand what would happen if we do not seize the opportunity for our own development. So if anything in welcoming you, I would like to leave you with that challenge because I think that a conference such as this has to look at what is current but it has to plan for what is on the radar screen in the near future. Thank you very much and welcome to Cape Town.
