Gov’t urged: Tap PPP for R&D efforts

MANILA, Philippines - Former Science and Technology secretary William Padolina is urging the government to consider tapping public-private partnerships (PPPs) for research and development (R&D) initiatives.

Padolina, president of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), said including science and technology (S&T) R&D in the projects that could be funded or pursued under the PPP framework will allow local scientists, researchers and innovators to tap private funds and resources to pursue costly research activities.

“I think we should find a way to include R&D projects in PPP,” Padolina said in a briefing with S&T reporters during the two-day 35th Annual Scientific Meeting held last week at the Manila Hotel.

Revenues from the technologies that will be developed from the R&D efforts under the PPP framework can be shared by the PPP partners, he said.

“It’s just a matter of having a good reading of the market, and putting up a business plan,” he said.

As an example, Padolina said the PPP could be tapped for the establishment of meteorological stations with more Doppler radars with data generated being shared by the PPP partners. The PPP could also be tapped for software research or medical diagnostic projects.

The 35th Annual Scientific Meeting organized by NAST tackled the country’s declining manufacturing sector as its main theme.

Padolina said R&D can be a major contributor in any effort to revive and reinvigorate the country’s manufacturing sector, allowing the country to attain inclusive growth with huge job generation.

Padolina said there has been a neglect of manufacturing when this is a major generator of employment, as focus is on business process outsourcing (BPO).

While he did not dismiss the contributions of the BPO sector, Padolina said there should also be an effort at helping the manufacturing sector since this could generate more jobs.

“The BPO sector can employ only a limited portion of the labor sector, the college graduates and at least those who reached second-year level. In manufacturing, even non-college graduates can be hired,” he said.