The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has recognized the role of innovation in the country’s structural transformation and transition to high-income country status.

In a statement, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said that transition to high-income country status in one generation rests on people's ability to innovate in an increasingly competitive and resource-constrained world.

“This is why I have proposed innovation to be one of the priorities in the next Philippine Development Plan,” Chua said in his welcome remarks during the first-ever celebration of the National Innovation Day organized by the National Innovation Council (NIC).

Chua, who is also the NIC vice-chair, said the full implementation of Republic Act No. 11293 or the Philippine Innovation Act will further raise the country’s productivity by encouraging more research, development, and adaptation of new technologies and processes.

“This will enable us to shift from low value-added to high value-added activities and unlock our potential to become a high-income country,” Chua said.

He further emphasized multi-sectoral coordination as key to the growth of a strong innovation culture in the Philippines.

“Today’s celebration marks our commitment to building a strong innovation culture in the country,” Chua said.

“This can only be realized through a strong, resilient, and connected ecosystem, composed of grassroots innovators, educational institutions, research and regional innovation centers, incubators, accelerators, government, businesses, and civil society with innovative and agile mindsets,” he added.

At the same event, Socioeconomic Planning Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Rosemarie G. Edillon presented the National Innovation Agenda framework.

According to Edillon, this will lay out the country’s ten-year roadmap for innovation governance across ten priority areas.

These include food and agribusiness, energy, blue economy and water, trade, transportation and logistics, finance, health, security and defense, learning and education, and public administration.

“These are the areas that we identified to be the focus of development, funding, and innovation in the next ten years,” said Edillon, who also serves as the chair of the NIC-Executive Technical Board.

For this year’s celebration, the NIC presented the salient features of the Philippine Innovation Act. Around 650 participated via Zoom and more than a thousand attendees joined the event’s Facebook and Youtube live streams.

“We still have a long way to go before becoming an innovation hub like South Korea and Singapore, but there is no doubt that Filipinos have the innate talent, grit, and creativity to make this possible. Let us work together to take the country to the next level of development,” Chua added.