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To address GII laggards, IPOPHL recommends the formation of multi-sectoral organizations
23 September 2021
The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has called for better collaboration between government, business, and academia, as well as the creation of multi-sectoral task groups, in response to the Philippines' one-notch drop in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2021.
The National Innovation Council (NIC) may benefit from the Department of Trade and Industry's prior work on the World Bank's Doing Business (DB) Survey, according to IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba.
"As a member of the NIC, IPOPHL is advocating for the formation of task forces to address areas that are weighing us down in our GII performance, such as Institutions, Human Capital and Research, Infrastructure, and Market Sophistication," Barba said at an inter-agency virtual press conference on the Philippine GII 2021 held Tuesday.
"[A task force] contributed to the Philippines rising 29 places to 95th out of 190 economies in 2020, the best ranking the nation has ever achieved in the DB. The NIC should follow suit, and we could not only improve our GII rating but also bring the country closer to the cutting edge of innovation," he added.
IPOPHL also supports the Philippine Innovation Act of 2019's drive for speedier establishment of "innovation coalitions."
These agreements are viewed as encouraging joint research between industry and academia within the law.
"Our agency is ready to help enhance this area with our initiative to capacitate the patent search, analysis, and drafting skills of numerous universities, colleges, and research institutions," Barba added.
The IPOPHL chief also called for more resources to be invested in increasing the value of the country's knowledge economy, warning that "Filipinos' works will continue to be unfinished masterpieces, our greatest untapped asset, if we do not direct more resources and attention to innovation, creativity, and intellectual property (IP)."
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