Press Release
July 30, 2011

ANGARA CALLS FOR DOST REVAMP

In his keynote speech at the S&T Stakeholders' Summit yesterday, Senator Edgardo J. Angara urged the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to overhaul its organizational workflow in order to facilitate faster growth through S&T innovation.

According to Angara, chair of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, the DOST should "shake out the cobwebs and straighten out the tangles in the work process so that major decisions are made in a strategic, responsive and timely manner, and big breakthroughs immediately get the support they need."

The veteran senator, a long-time advocate science & technology and chair of the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), said that if the DOST is revitalized and reenergized in this manner, it will be the S&T trendsetter the country badly needs in such a highly competitive and fast-paced era.

"What we need now is a development-oriented, strategic S&T and R&D plan that would integrate the world's top technologies. We must facilitate the collaboration among industry, academe and government so that the sector becomes responsive to the needs of the people," he asserted. Angara encouraged DOST to farm out innovation to the countryside by funding R&D activities in universities and colleges in the provinces.

He urged the DOST to create innovation clusters that will serve as PPP's in S&T and engines of rural development and R&D growth.

Angara said that there are many world-class agricultural schools in the country that can be the testbed for research into rice varieties that give higher yields and are resistant to drought or salinity. These should be linked up with the PhilRice and International Rice Research Institute.

Information and Communications Technology, on the other hand, is now one of the biggest job generators in the country. Angara said DOST regional offices, especially in the Visayas, should be more aggressive in capitalizing on the momentum generated by the BPO industry.

An aquaculture innovation cluster can be created throughout the eastern seaboard, such as in Angara's home province of Aurora where a PPP already pioneers in the production of milkfish and high-value fishes such as sea bass, abalone and lapu-lapu.

This forum was held as part of the DOST's Science Expo 2011 in celebration of the National Science and Technology Week. A week-long series of events was held in the SMX Convention Center in the SM Mall of Asia compound.

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