By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net
INNOVATION is key to improving the country’s global competitiveness, as well as strengthening the local economy.
This was the key message delivered by several government and private sector executives during the presentation for the upcoming National Innovation Summit (NIS) to be held in Manila November 26.
“The NIS is the start for all of us to push for innovation in the country. We have linked up with several groups from the academe, local and foreign government, and private sector to work together,” said Frederico Macaranas, executive director of the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center.
Macaranas noted that the Philippines slipped behind other Southeast Asian countries in terms of competitiveness in the last 30 years. Some scientists and engineers had no natural place to connect to so they sought greener pastures abroad.
Macaranas also noted the problem of slow decline in culture of innovation and invention, which pushed back the country’s level of competitiveness.
“This is what we hope to resolve when we meet with the various sectors during the NIS,” Macaranas said.
The Department of Science and Technology, which has under its management several sub-agencies that focus on technology development, experiences most of the problems in terms of brain drain as many scientists and engineers are leaving the country.
Regardless, Alabastro said the DOST has been implementing projects to encourage local scientists to produce more technologies and innovations, as well as enticing Filipino scientists and researchers working abroad to come back and share their knowledge locally.
Alabastro said that while these activities work, it still requires the assistance of the private sector that has the financial capability to turn scientific outputs into commercially viable products.
Meanwhile, IBM Philippines president and general manager James Velasquez said that as one of the private sector representatives, it is important that companies realize the need to support locally developed innovations. He noted that having a pool of innovators encourages multi-national firms to locate to the Philippines, as well as to help local firms.
Mirroring what Alabastro and Macaranas said, Velasquez added that the NIS would be a good venue to get the private sector to see what they could do to help local innovators.
Here’s a video of INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla interviewing Alabastro and Velasquez.
Intellectual Property Office Director General Adrian Cristobal Jr. agreed with Alabastro and Macaranas, saying that the majority of patent filings in the Philippines are from foreign firms and only a few Filipinos have filed for patents in the past decade.
Cristobal said that one measurement of the country’s economic strength is its capacity to innovate and he said the Philippines is far behind other countries in terms of innovation.
Likewise, very few even know the value of intellectual property rights, thus they fail to protect their innovations and inventions.
“Knowing their rights is half the success. Actually patenting is another,” he said.
Here’s a video of me interviewing Cristobal.
