EDITORIAL - Rewarding innovation

Filipinos are familiar with “miracle rice,” developed not too long ago by local scientists working with foreign partners in Los Baños, Laguna. The high-yielding rice variety helped ease global hunger. Today Filipino scientists are working with an international team to develop a further improved version called Super Rice.

But how many are aware that Ilocano Pedro Flores developed the yoyo for mass marketing in the United States and the world? Music-loving Filipino Roberto del Rosario also produced the first karaoke sing-along machine. Filipino pediatrician Fe del Mundo invented the baby incubator. And Eduardo San Juan, a Filipino engineer at NASA, is the primary designer of the Lunar Rover.

There are many other products of Filipino ingenuity, and there could be more, with recognition and sufficient support from both the government and private sector. The Filipino Inventors Society is proposing an award to encourage more innovation. The proposal merits serious consideration.

Apart from encouraging local innovation, the government should pour more resources into supporting research and development. Or else the government can mobilize foreign aid and private sector support for R&D.

The country is not lacking in brains and creativity, but R&D does not come cheap. Pharmaceutical giants spend billions over an average of eight to 10 years to develop a single drug. Other governments work hand in hand with the private sector to promote R&D, aware that cutting-edge technology is indispensable for competitiveness in the global economy. Efficient technology for manufacturing can offset slave labor wages that businessmen in certain developing countries use to keep their export products dirt-cheap.

Sound science and better technology can improve responses to climate change, making it cost-efficient for industries to invest in environment-friendly technology. Supporting R&D can also ease the brain drain in many industries that have lost top engineers to employers overseas who can afford to pay up to 10 times what local enterprises can offer.

In recent years, countries that face a similar problem such as China have invested heavily in reversing the brain drain, dangling attractive compensation packages to their best and brightest overseas. It’s a worthy investment in human resources – a nation’s most valuable asset.