Launching program to up innovation in Cordillera

Research and Development

Virginia Anceno

BAGUIO CITY -- The regional research, development, and innovation committee (RRDIC) with Science and Technology regional director Nancy Bantog as chairperson in collaboration with Dept. of Trade and Industry Cordillera launched ATTRACT (Accelerators towards transformative regional advancement, competitiveness, and transcendence) Nov. 4 here at the University of the Cordilleras (UC).
    “The launching aims to promote ATTRACT as a marketing brand of the region’s regional inclusive innovation center (RIIC)”, DTI assistant regional director Samuel Gallardo said.
    RDC Secretary and NEDA ARD Stephanie F. Christiansen bared enabling mechanisms for innovation and related RDC initiatives such as the creation of the RRDIC with RIIC as its banner program.
    She cited need to establish a sub-national innovation database guided by innovation ecosystem framework to allow for a better innovation narrative and clear entry points for improvement.
    “Innovation is an emerging priority of the current administration as contained in the 8-point socioeconomic agenda of President Ferdinand E. Marcos,” she added. 
    Christiansen mentioned the Innovation Fund under Republic Act 11293 and criteria to assess proposals.      
 “There are about 22,540 establishments in the region with a 10.1 percent growth rate.  However, total employment in the region decreased by 12.3 percent or 14,963 fewer employed individuals from 2018 to 2021,” Bantog said. “For them to seize these opportunities, they need guidance and assistance to better anticipate, adjust and prepare for bigger demands and competition.”
    “With the current market behaviors and widened opportunities through digitalization, we need to infuse new technologies that introduce new and relevant goods that are efficiently produced at optimized capacity and sold at reasonable prices.  Our MSMEs need to cope with innovation that will match the fast and shifting behaviors of consumers that demand for essentials and goods ,”Dept. of Trade and Industry  Juliet Lucas said.
    DICT Regional Dir. Rey Parnacio presented ICT programs and projects supporting the start-ups, while Rene B. Misa of Cordillera School of Digital Arts talked on prospect and role of digital arts on innovation.
    Dr. Thelma Palaoag of UC and project leader of the TARAKI innovation hub committed to strengthen the start-up ecosystem of the RIIC through the ATTRACT.
    The TARAKI is a consortium composed of technology business incubators housed at the UC with Saint Louis University and Benguet State University as members.
    The RIIC intends to establish, mobilize and strengthen an innovation ecosystem in the Cordillera aligned with the Philippine Innovation Act and the Innovative Start-up Act or RA 11337.
    RDC vice-chairperson and National Economic  Development Authority regional director Susan A. Sumbeling is vice chairperson of the RDC’s committee on economic development under which the RRDIC operates.