DAVAO CITY—The business incubator facilities in Mindanao established with the help of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) should trigger the crafting of application start-ups to help ease the operation of businesses and industries in Mindanao.
“Technology Business Incubation is one of the key strategies identified by DOST to stimulate innovation and technopreneurship that will help the country’s socio-economic development,” said DOST Davao Regional Director Dr. Anthony Sales.
He said the first Mindanao Technology Business Incubator (TBI) Summit would highlight the important role of the TBIs to assist start-ups, incubators, firm owners and innovators of programs and Internet applications.
He said the electronic programs and applications are usually developed for specific needs of businesses and corporations in their operations and these should be encouraged to emerge among Internet users.
The DOST said there are six TBIs established in Mindanao with the help of the DOST Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD).
Sales said the products of these TBIs would also be the DOST’s contribution in helping shape the programs and activities of business and corporate operations in Mindanao.
He said these programs being designed by the DOST were the Science for Change Program, the Higher Education Institution Readiness for Innovation and Technopreneurship, the Technology Innovation for Commercialization Program, the Young Innovators Program and the Start-up Grant Fund Program.
Sales also emphasized the ongoing development of the region’s Knowledge, Innovation, Science, and Technology Park, which will facilitate the development and commercialization of advanced
technologies.
He said the Grassroots Innovation for Inclusive Development program of the agency, for example, “helps identify and assess the needs and opportunities in rural communities where DOST can provide science and technology interventions.”
“Through these programs, we can contribute to producing more start-ups and amplify the inclusive innovation ecosystem in the region,” he said.
The First Mindanao Technology Business Incubator (TBI) Summit was held on August 13 and 14 and it was organized by the Innovation and Development Accelerators Consortium for Start-ups Davao, or IDEAS Davao.
Meanwhile, the DOST XI installed an online compendium of books to the Lorenzo Latawan National High School of Barangay Pandaitan, Paquibato District weeks before the school reopening this year. It said it installed the Starbooks, an online and offline compendium of various
learning materials in multimedia and full-text formats available to teachers and learners for free and conducted Disaster Risk Reduction
Management (DRRM) Training for the faculty members.
The DOST said the online application was important for Paquibato District, which it described as “a remote borderland that was once a strife-torn district and a former stronghold of rebels causing limited resources arriving in the area.”
“As you are now part of the CEST community, we are committed to helping you in any way we can,” said Arnel M. Rodriguez, head of DOST XI City Science and Technology Office. He was referring to the Community Empowerment through Science and Technology program of
DOST.
School principal Raymon Abanto expressed his gratitude to the team from DOST XI “for hurdling the three-hour trip and almost impassable roads just to deliver services to their school.”
“This is the first time that a national government agency has come to visit our school. Thank you very much,” Abanto said. “We know that the road you traversed today is not an easy road, especially because of the heavy rain last night. And as the saying goes, ‘When it rains it pours’ and today it pours blessings.”
Image credits: Dr. Anthony Sales’ FB account