Press Release
May 7, 2009

ANGARA BATS FOR EFFECTIVE COMMERCIALIZATION OF RP'S R&D EFFORTS

Senator Edgardo J. Angara today said that the country should address the weakest link in its innovation system which is the process of transferring and commercializing the results of research and development (R&D).

"The weakest link in the country's innovation system is the process of transferring and commercializing the results of research and development (R&D) particularly those undertaken by government-funded R&D institutions. The reasons for this are many. For one, the technology transfer process requires a conducive policy environment with strong support from public and private sectors," said Angara who chairs the Senate Committee on Science and Technology.

He added, "In many developed countries, technology transfer and innovation policy are very much at the center of their policies on economic development. Thus, the strong productivity growth recorded in the United States, Japan, European countries and recently India was underpinned by technological innovations that emanated from high-quality scientific research institutions. Their innovation activities are supported by sufficient investment in research and development, highly capacitated research institutions, strong university industry research collaboration, promotion of entrepreneurship and economic activities across broad spectrum of society, and well defined intellectual property rights regime."

Angara lamented that the Philippines has yet to achieve high level of technological readiness and innovative capacity that typify well-developed economies and those entering the developed phase like India.

The 2006-2007 Global Competitiveness Report places the Philippines in the 71st ranking out of 125 countries in terms of technological readiness or ability to adopt technologies from home or abroad to enhance the productivity of its industries. This is in contrast with the high rankings of our Asian neighbors like Singapore (2nd), Hong Kong (13th), Korea (18th), Japan (19th), Malaysia (28th) and Thailand (48th).

In the area of innovation or the ability to produce brand new technologies, the country ranks a dismal 79th. Compared to emerging innovation powerhouses in the ASEAN like Singapore (9th), Malaysia (21st), Indonesia (37th) and Thailand (33rd), the Philippines clearly has a lot of catching up to do in terms of innovation.

"Our State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) should also be able to convert their research projects into commercial products. In this manner, we can have an opportunity wherein our SUCs, as an institution of learning, can tie up with private sector which can help us augment our resources in these tough times of financial crisis," he added.

Angara recently filed a Technology Transfer bill which hopes to foster a stronger and closer private-public collaboration or closer relationship to industry and provide the framework that will promote coordination, integration and harmonization of all technology transfer efforts by various agencies in the country. This seeks to resolve the issues on technology ownership, and provide the institutional mechanism for developing a creative technology transfer capability.

SB 1721 underscores the importance of technology transfer as an engine to move the country forward and establishes the scheme that will make possible the emergence of the Philippines as another ASEAN innovation powerhouse.

It is endorsed by the Departments of Science and Technology, Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, Health, Trade and Industry, and Interior and Local Governments, Commission on Higher Education, and Intellectual Property Philippines.

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