THE Senate passed on third and final reading last week a bill that seeks to adopt innovation as a vital component of the country’s development and to create an interagency national innovation council.
“Realizing our economic potential as a people will depend largely upon our ability to develop and maintain an innovative, strategic, and adaptive economy that is fully capable of sustaining inclusive growth over the next couple of decades,” said Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, principal author of Senate Bill 1355.
A new government body, the National Innovation Council, would be tasked to prepare a long-term road map based on innovation and coordination of such efforts in both the private and public sector.
Among others, it will administer a P1-billion Innovation Fund, “from which grants would be issued to strengthen entrepreneurship and enterprises engaged in developing innovative solutions benefitting the poorest of the poor.” (PR)