While the Philippine economy has already shown initial signs of recovery, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said the country must push on and sustain its efforts to innovate.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said innovations remain crucial to advancing the country’s recovery and eradicate poverty under the AmBisyon 2040.
These innovations include the passage of key legislations such as the amendments to the Public Service Act and the implementation of the Philippine identification system (PhilSys) and the Philippine Innovation Act.
“Through more innovations and reforms aimed at addressing the country’s policy distortions beginning with the most basic sector, agriculture, we can transform our agriculture, manufacturing, and our services sectors, and provide better economic opportunities and outcomes for all,” Chua said.
“Innovation is not simply about cutting-edge technology. Rather, at its core, innovation is about working together to find the best solutions to our most pressing problems—even basic ones in agriculture and financial inclusion. Everyone has a role to play in strengthening our innovation culture,” Chua said.
The Neda chief said the economy’s performance this year, particularly in the third quarter of 2021, has exceeded expectations and will allow the country to recover its pre-pandemic GDP growth level in early 2022.
However, efforts to sustain this growth means innovating, particularly the agriculture sector. Chua said, “except for some city-states, no country has achieved high-income status without first addressing agricultural productivity.”
Chua said the country had already made the first step towards this through the Rice Tariffication Law, which succeeded in bringing down rice prices for all Filipino consumers, while increasing the productivity and income of rice farmers through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.
Other reforms that will spur innovation in the country include amendments to the PhilSys.
“Neda fully supports the urgent passage of amendments to the Public Service Act. Relaxing restrictions on foreign ownership will help us attract more investments and create more jobs that are crucial to accelerating our economic recovery. This, in turn, will expose us to new ideas, best practices, and high skills in an increasingly globalized world,” Chua said.
PhilSys provides a unique and digitalized proof of identity to give every Filipino, especially the poor, access to much-needed social, financial, and digital services.
As of December 10, 2021, PSA has registered 50,014,382 Filipinos to the demographic and biometric data collection. In partnership with the PSA, the Land Bank of the Philippines has also processed 6,786,939 bank account applications for low-income families through a co-location strategy in PhilSys registration centers.
Along with these, the full implementation of the Philippine Innovation Act will further solidify the country’s growth prospects and improve its global innovation index by encouraging more research, development, and adaptation of new technologies.
As the vice-chair of the National Innovation Council (NIC), Neda is developing the National Innovation Agenda and Strategy Document. This 10-year foresight will weave and harmonize existing policies and strategies based on the evolving innovation ecosystems.
NIC will also manage a P1-billion innovation fund in 2022. This will strengthen enterprises engaged in developing innovative solutions to address the concerns of the people, most especially the poor.
