Senior Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said she is supporting stronger international cooperation in Science and Technology (S&T).
The former president asked participants of a science and technology innovation forum in China to look for ways of strengthening international exchanges and cooperation to contribute to the creation of a community with a shared future for mankind.
In a video message at the opening ceremony of the BFA-2nd International Science and Technology Innovation Forum (ISTIF) last Sept. 28 Arroyo reiterated the need to develop science and technology that is beneficial to humanity. The forum was held from September 28-30, 2022 in Zhuhao, Guangdong, China.
“It is fitting that this international innovation forum looks at strengthening international exchanges and cooperation in science and technology and contributing to the creation of a community with a shared future for mankind,” Arroyo said.
ISTIF is sponsored by the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), the Asian equivalent of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Arroyo has been a member of the BFA Board of Directors for several years and has been often asked to speak at various BFA-sponsored fora.
The 2nd ISTIF tackled developments in science, technology, and innovation in Asia and beyond.
Arroyo shared that as an avid user and consumer of the products of technology and innovation, she is awed “…that what begins as a figment of human imagination transforms into creative design and translates into useful products that eventually pervade and persist in our lives through innovation.”
She said “progressive nations today enjoy multiple dimensions and degrees of freedom, to create, design, invent and innovate, to develop new products, processes, and systems useful to society,” and such nations have “great capacity to grow seeds of innovation, because they invested through the decades in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in order to enhance the knowledge and education of the populace, from youth to post-retirement.”
She added that modern societies that have supported life-long learning of the basic foundations of scientific knowledge and creative design and systems thinking have built a robust human workforce of S&T experts and competent and skilled workers.
During her presidency, the country invested heavily in the development of engineering research and development human resources through a consortium of seven universities led by the University of the Philippines, with funding found by then Secretary of Budget and Management Rolando Andaya, Jr.