Senator Angara pushes industrial research & development institute to boost RP electronics

By Jason de Asis

 

SENATE OFFICE, Manila, October 22, 2010-Senator Edgardo J. Angara, chair of the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), today sought the urgent establishment of the Industrial Research and Development Institute (IRDI), which aims to boost the competitiveness of the Philippines electronics and semiconductors industry.

 

The IRDI is modeled after Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which is largely credited with creating the proper environment for industry and government to partner in the electronics and semicon industry which in turn helped Taiwan gain its status as a technology leader.

 

Sen. Angara said that this project was conceptualized after studying Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which was a key factor in Taiwan’s economic success which can be replicated here.

 

“If we want to gain economic success like our highly-industrialized Asian neighbors, we have to change the way we innovate as a nation. IRDI will be a Public-Private Partnership that is industry led. Government and academe can support R&D initiatives in the institute as envisioned by the COMSTE Electronics and Semiconductors panel,” Sen. Angara added.

 

According to a report, the electronics and semiconductors panel noted that exports from the industry comes out to $31 Billion per year and employs 450,000 workers. The same report, however, indicated that challenges such as a weak R&D structure and declining educational standards are hurting the industry.

 

IRDI priorities are high value-added activities such as automatic testing, IC-design, photovoltaics (PV) testing, and the e-vehicles project.

 

COMSTE and ITRI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on February 12, 2009. COMSTE is currently reviewing the possibility of morphing the DOST’s Advanced Science & Technology institute (ASTI) into the IRDI by Executive Order,” he furthered. (Jason de Asis)