By Dennis Posadas
Contributor

THE scenario is all too familiar. A young Filipino, after having completed his masters or PhD in engineering or the sciences, decides to leave for abroad to seek greener pastures. Or even, a returnee Filipino with an advanced degree from abroad, returning with hope in his eyes, only to leave again, disillusioned by what he can work on and what he will earn.

Or even the fact that many of our small- and medium-sized Philippine companies cannot afford to do R&D to improve their products to make them world class. But if they had a world-class R&D Institute that can help them, but for a fraction of the cost, wouldn’t that be great?

One of the Congressional Commission on Science & Technology and Engineering (COMSTE)’s main recommendations is to setup a local version of Taiwan’s R&D jewel, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

In the 70’s, when the GDP of Taiwan was still based on agriculture and low cost manufacturing, their leaders decided that they wanted to copy Silicon Valley. To do this, they setup the ITRI, in the city of Hsinchu. The ITRI ever since has become Taiwan’s top source of innovation and technology spin offs.

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