"This must happen now."
If there is one more lesson to learn from this coronavirus pandemic, it is the importance of a more comprehensive and stronger science and technology policy in our country.
An often-raised criticism of the administration’s response to COVID-19 is the need for our policymakers to heed science — at least in this case, what healthcare experts believe – in their decision-making.
There is no doubt that science and technology is to be credited for the significant improvements in the quality of life in many parts of the world. Scientific innovations have made life a lot easier and help find novel solutions to age-old problems.
Science and technology has also been the main driving force in the economic success of our Asian neighbors such as China, Taiwan and Thailand. These countries have gained immensely from the heavy investments they made on research and development as well as science and technology education.
On the other hand, the Philippines continues to have among the lowest numbers of science and technology graduates in Asia. Our elementary and high school students score low on science assessment tests. Support for the few scientists and researchers in our country has been minimal. The number of patent applications is the lowest in the ASEAN region, an obvious clue into the limited integration of scientific innovation into the economy.
In the 2020 Global Innovation Index Report, the Philippines ranked 50th out of 128 economies. While this is already a steady progress from the 54th rank in 2018 and 73th in 2017, there remains much to be done for our country to catch up with other knowledge economies in the Southeast Asian region.
There is no substitute for a stronger and more focused application of our science and technology agenda in ensuring our nation’s long-term development.
But that could prove a daunting task given the weak culture of science, technology and innovation in the country.
That being said, governance has an indispensable role to play.
If we were to increase awareness of the importance of science and technology and consequently maximize the gains of scientific innovation, it must begin with an increased budget allocation for the science and technology sector.
As it is, the Philippines allocates the least amount to science and technology as well as research and development compared to our ASEAN neighbors. In fact, the country spends only about 0.2 percent or a fifth of the 1 percent of GDP benchmark set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Even the proposed national budget now pending before Congress shows a measly 0.5-percent allocation for the Department of Science and Technology.
This year’s allocation may be higher than previous budgets – but a significant portion of that will go to the establishment of the Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines.
Given the social and economic returns that could come with higher investments in science, technology and innovation, it is high time for the government to consider increasing our science and technology budget.
With the COVID-19 pandemic grappling our nation, one can only hope that the government made science and technology a priority in previous years.
Given its strong capability for scientific innovation, Vietnam, for example, was able to quickly develop its own COVID-19 testing kits and readily repurpose its car factories to produce mechanical ventilators – all within months from the first COVID-19 case in the country. Not only was Vietnam able to implement mass testing in month, it is also now exporting mechanical ventilators to Europe.
Furthermore, government has to take the lead in integrating science and technology into the economy. Increased knowledge creation will further strengthen the knowledge economy value chain.
Incentives must be given to Filipino businesses that readily utilize research output from the country’s scientific community and transform them into high-value innovative products.
The same could be said if scientific breakthroughs were to be integrated into agriculture, disaster resilience, education, health, industry and infrastructure.
Appointing scientific advisors to the different executive departments could be a step in the right direction of overcoming the barriers to the adoption and adaptation of science and technology in crafting public policies.
The experience of our ASEAN neighbors has already proven that economies could grow at an accelerated rate if emerging technologies and knowledge were tapped to optimize productivity.
This is bolstered by the fact that among the biggest business enterprises in the world today are from the tech industry sector.
Finally, we need to stop the long-standing brain drain in our country’s scientific community. Underemployment has caused many of our highly skilled and locally trained scientists and engineers to migrate to other countries, leaving our local industries and enterprises with the challenge of securing the workforce needed to ensure growth and sustain productivity.
During the post-Korean War reconstruction, South Korea experienced its worst economic crisis. In response, the government called on its scientists and engineers to return home and help rebuild the economy. In less than three decades, South Korea’s tech economy became one of the biggest in the world.
Filipinos are definitely capable of making scientific breakthroughs.
If more attention is given and increased investments are made to science and technology, more jobs would be made available to our scientists and engineers. As a result, it could easily double our capacity for research and innovation, allow our innovation ecosystem to flourish and give our local industries a significant competitive advantage.
The growth of our science and technology sector will not happen overnight, but the government must make the first step forward and lead the way.
At the speed that technological innovation is going, that step forward must happen now.
