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CONTINUOUS investment in science and technology will
bring the Philippines to First World status in 20 years,
President Arroyo said on Monday.
“On the
part of the Philippines, to pursue our vision to join
the First World in 20 years, we have proclaimed
technology as the foundation of future economic
development,” said Arroyo in her keynote speech at the
opening of the Asean Science and Technology Week that
coincides with the Philippines’ National Science and
Technology and Week. It was also part of the celebration
of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST)
50th anniversary.
Arroyo
said the country’s Medium-Term Philippine Development
Plan (MTPDP) gives a strong focus on boosting science
and technology and harnessing the gains through a
four-pronged approach: enhancing the competitiveness of
our human capital; developing a critical mass of
scientists and R&D personnel; speeding up knowledge
creation and dissemination to push productivity; and
improving the mechanisms that promote technology-based
entrepreneurship.
“Even as
we pursue the vision of reaching First World [status] in
20 years, we remain focused on solving everyday
problems. We are focusing on fighting for the average
Filipino. Therefore, we are focused on putting food on
the table,” she said.
To put
more money in poor people’s pockets so they can afford
the higher world price of food, the programs of DOST
“include improving productivity in coconut areas, where
we have a million farmers,” said Mrs. Arroyo.
“We want
virgin coconut oil to be as familiar in kitchen cabinets
as olive oil,” said the President, who wore a dress made
from pineapple fibers and dyed from a coconut
derivative, which is a product of research of the
Philippine Textile Research Institute of the DOST.
She said
the DOST’s various laboratories such as its Industrial
Technology Development Institute and Ateneo University
are accelerating the physico-chemical and biological
studies for virgin coconut oil to give it higher value
geared for the international and local markets.
She
again stressed her administration’s commitment to
enhance R&D by investing a special P3-billion fund
between 2007 and 2010, including the S&T complex at the
University of the Philippines.
“This is
to promote engineering R&D activities in the country at
a significant scale in order to modernize every aspect
of the economic underpinnings of the Philippines to
propel economic growth. Modernization will need, indeed,
as we said in our Medium-Term Plan, a critical mass of
R&D-capable manpower to bring our country to First World
status in 20 years,” she said.
Mrs.
Arroyo also stressed that the DOST received the largest
percentage increase of 51 percent in this year’s budget,
which she said will prioritize food and agriculture,
energy, public health, information and communications
technology (ICT) and the environment, including disaster
prevention.
As far
as ICT is concerned, she praised her administration’s
efforts in promoting business-process outsourcing (BPO)
through the establishment of the Cyber Corridor. Besides
Metro Manila, which is ranked second next only to
Bangalore in International Data Corp.’s list of Top 20
Outsourcing Cities in Asia and the Pacific, Mrs. Arroyo
said there is a huge potential in the BPO sector. The
country, she noted, has 24 new wave centers for
outsourcing—Metro Manila, Tuguegarao, Baguio, Dagupan,
Urdaneta, Cabanatuan, Clark, San Fernando in Pampanga,
Subic, Cainta, Bacoor, Santa Rosa, Lipa, Batangas City,
Camarines Sur, Legazpi, Iloilo, Bacolod, Dumaguete,
Cebu, Leyte, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and General Santos.
She said
the government is exerting efforts to ensure a robust
infrastructure for the cyberservices. She said the
construction of the two international broadband links to
provide the resiliency and redundancy would materialize
when the new international broadband links of the PLDT
in La Union and Globe in Cagayan in northern Philippines
will be operational in 2009.
Meanwhile, the President and Science Secretary Estrella
Alabastro led the awarding of the Asean Outstanding
Scientist and Technologist Award on Dr. Caesar Saloma of
the Philippines and the Asean Young Scientist and
Technologist Award on Dr. Lisa Ng Fong Poh of Singapore.
Saloma’s award comes with a cash prize of $10,000.
Saloma,
the dean of the College of Science of University of the
Philippines and the first and only Asean winner of the
internationally prestigious Galileo Galilei Award in
physics, was cited for his research work on the
application of photonics for biomedical and industrial
applications. Between February 1990 and December 2007,
Saloma and his colleagues at the Instrumentation Physics
Laboratory published more than 80 papers in leading
optics and applied physics journals in the United States
and Europe.
Ng, on
her part, was awarded for her innovative efforts and
expertise in avian-flu (H5N1) diagnostics. Together with
Asean’s health-management group, Ng led the scientist
for avian influenza diagnostics in designing the test
kits and has been active in bilateral assistance package
to Indonesia.
Meanwhile, economics professor Ernesto Pernia of the UP
School of Economics said Mrs. Arroyo’s proclamation that
the Philippines will be a First World country in 20
years because of its focus on S&T is a “bad dream.”
“It’s
only a political statement. The problem is that the
country is so far behind in S&T,” said Pernia in a phone
interview.
Even
though the Arroyo administration is investing a lot of
money in boosting research and development, Pernia said
the results of R&D in S&T would not be felt in the short
term. He further said the actual application would
require a lot of time to deliver an impact.
In his
studies in development economics, Pernia pointed out
that things have not been promising for the Philippines.
“In my 40-year study of development economics in the
Philippines, the country has a lot of setbacks,” he
said.
Pernia
said he was surprised why Arroyo made the bold
projection based on a 20-year period when she’s not in
control of the situation in that entire length of time.
Meanwhile, former President Estrada’s spokesman Margaux
Salcedo said Mrs. Arroyo’s statement might be
interpreted by some people to mean that she wants to
prolong her stay in power. “Maybe the reason she’s
making a 20-year projection is because she has no plan
of stepping down,” said Salcedo in a phone interview. |
