ILIGAN CITY – Science and technology Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. urged companies and business establishments to consider hiring researchers to improve or innovate on their products and contribute to improving the country’s economy.
Solidum made a quick remark on this appeal as he keynoted yesterday the Northern Mindanao Summit on Innovative Construction Materials and Technology at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology.
“Hire our researchers,” he told the summit attended by business owners, university officials and students, who included scholars of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)
He said the Philippines is following the path of the Southeast Asian region which is expected to post tremendous growth among the continents. While the Philippines would post an estimated growth of about seven percent, some sectors like business would tend to be slow in adapting to change from their old ways.
“We must be ready to embrace new ideas,” he said, as he pointed to recent strides in researches that have been adapted by government and some industry players, including local the breakthrough technology in detecting Covid-19 infection and improving protocols, and in new cyber technology in monitoring trends in transportation, as well as the polymer technology used to contain the remaining oil in the spill in Mindoro.
He said the escalating use of cyber and industry technologies has also needed “to escalate researches”.
However, he cautioned universities and government to translate their researches into actual commercial uses.
“Getting more researches and improving them is good, but we need to translation into commercialization of these technology, not only to see their actual uses, but also to improve our economy, to hire more people, and improve our economy as a whole,” he said.
“The world has always looked at us as victims of disasters, but if we improve and translate these researches into commercial use, and apply them to our daily lives, including how to address these disasters, then we would show the world one day, that we are victors,” he said.
Solidum also graced the installation of three research laboratories inside MSU-IIT: the Research Institute for Engineering and Innovative Technology (RIEIT) and the two research centers under it, the Nicer-Center for Sustainable Polymers (CSP) and the Center for Energy Research and Technology (CERT).
