Cisco to import ICT skills

By Damaria Senne for Cisco
Cape Town, 22 Aug 2007

Cisco aims to import foreign ICT skills, and is in negotiations with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as to how this can be done.

Speaking at a GovTech 2007 dinner in Cape Town last night, local GM Steve Midgley said Cisco had presented to the DTI a foreign investment proposal that provides for bringing e-skills to SA.

He did not provide details as to how many skills would be brought in, or what the value of this investment will be. An announcement would be made in due course, he said. However, the initiative will also drive the development of local intellectual capital.

Midgley added the negotiations with the DTI are going "very well". Cisco recently invested R30 million in developing local skills, producing more than 5 000 ICT graduates from its Networking Academy, with another 1 800 graduates in the pipeline. This project is also being undertaken in partnership with the DTI.

IP cautionary

Meanwhile, Shuttleworth Foundation CEO Mark Shuttleworth said this morning that SA must look at the development of intellectual property differently to how the US is punting it.

"I am concerned that the world is swallowing the US' IP views without questioning," he said. The US takes the position that intellectual property should be owned, he said, because the country has a huge asset base from which it generates revenue.

Shuttleworth said that, while drafting national strategies, government should keep in mind that there will never be another country with the same level of IP assets as the US.

Software development and the development of ICT infrastructure in general should follow the model where resources are developed collaboratively and used jointly, he noted.

Shuttleworth cited Wikipedia as an example, where people worldwide, with different skills and interests, contribute content. Cities in SA and countries in Africa could follow this model, saving on costs and leveraging available resources, he concluded.