Saturday,
May 19, 2012
THE
Philippines needs to invest heavily on developing technology, following the
models of such countries as India, Korea, Japan and the United States, among
others, a prominent engineer and entrepreneur said.
Philippine
Development Corp. (PhilDev) Chairman Diosdado Banatao, in a recent interview,
pointed out that India, instead of being hobbled by its large population, used
its human capital to build a strong capability in software development.
Cebu, he
said, ought to push for more training so it could build a “technology-based
ecosystem” that can create new applications or solutions to solve problems.
This
way, he said, the country can slowly transform from a buyer into a major player
in the global market.
“We are
limited in our own markets. But, we have the ability to be part of the global
market because we have way more people than Japan and Korea,” said Banatao, the
managing partner of Tallwood Ventures.
He
pointed out that what made countries like Korea, Japan, US, Germany and France
succeed is that they have built a strong capability and produced technologies
that were embedded into their products.
“Imagine
that 90 percent of the value goes back to the product creator, and if this is
ploughed back to its local economy through investments on research and
development to create more products, this alone will have a huge impact on the
lives of the people as well as the economy in general,” Banatao explained.
High
risk, high reward
Eric
Manlunas, co-founder and managing partner of Siemer Ventures, advised companies
to invest on early-stage firms given the high liquidity in the market today.
“We need
to promote angel investing here, for our start-ups to take off,” he said.
Banatao
added investors should start looking at technology development as an
investment, aside from pouring all their money into real estate and shopping
among others, to build a community of venture capitalists (VCs).
However,
he admitted that some investors in the Philippines fear the fact that success
rate among VC-supported ventures is low.
“This
involves huge risks, but high returns. But VCs should be there to lead and
mentor start-ups,” said Banatao.
Aside
from the lack of financial capital to build a community of VCs, the other
challenges include a shortage of experienced technology entrepreneurs and
managers, of scientists and engineers, and insufficient access to a global
network of experts.
PhilDev
trustee Winston Damarillo said everyone needs to participate—industry players,
academe and government—to address all these concerns, considering that the
Philippines is among the Next 11 emerging markets.
“We need
everyone’s involvement so we can turn the brilliant ideas of our people into
money-earning products and services, which could further economic growth,” said
Damarillo, also the founder Developers Connect (DevCon) Philippines and
software companies Morphlabs and Exist.
The next
11 markets are Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan,
South Korea, the Philippines, Turkey and Vietnam.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu
newspaper on May 19, 2012.
