While the racetrack-like Elliptical Road in Quezon City rumbles with noise, fumes, and traffic, a few silent automobiles make their own rounds in the Quezon Memorial Circle that the road borders. Humbly seating four persons max, the curious rides called G Cars (in a pun-loaded attribution to their inventor, Gerry Caroro) can be hired for PHP30 per lap. Caroro laments, however, that he never intended his invention as an amusement park curiosity. He intended it to be the solution to the country’s dependence on imported oil, as well as reduce pollution in the metropolis.
Unfortunately Caroro has difficulty finding an investor for his invention, a plight shared with most of the country’s inventors. As any dutiful citizen of the Philippines tends to do, Ronald Talion of the Filipino Inventors Society blames the government for this:
“It’s already mandated under Republic Act Act 7459 (Inventors and Invention Incentives Act) and yet, for some strange reason, our inventors have to fend for themselves,” Talion noted.
“The only support we get is the P178,000 that is given to us every November to celebrate National Inventors Week (NIW). Obviously this is not enough, which is why a lot of my colleagues were forced to seek support from abroad,” he lamented. [Inquirer.Net]
An automotive industry that never was
The plight of Caroro’s fledgling effort to produce a viable automotive technology is but an addition to the tragic history of the country’s automotive industry, shared with its ubiquitous mode of transport and cultural icon: the jeepney. Originally coming from surplus and left-behind military jeeps, roofs were installed and lavish decorations applied to convert former war-wagons into colorful passenger vehicles able to seat six to ten people at a time. From the 60s until the 80s, a vibrant backyard industry emerged, where jeepneys and “owner-type” jeeps were manufactured as low-cost alternatives to lavish, large-engined American cars or their cheaper Japanese counterparts.
The jeepney manufacturing sector was never able to make it beyond “backyard” status to become a genuine car-manufacture industry, though. Beyond metal pressing and stamping, and fabrication of various “mods” to adorn and embellish each jeepney, they never went to the stage of standardization, efficient mass production, and assembly line automation. Over fifty years of jeepney manufacture remained in the realm of hand-pressed, hand-crafted, hand-painted methods. Moreover, it is peculiarly unclear if any two jeepneys are exactly alike, and it is even dubious if any of them had followed a clear cut blue print of any sort.
The last straw, however, is the country’s dependence on Japanese-made surplus engines. Despite whatever expertise local mechanics could boast about in the knowledge of assembling, maintaining and repairing car engines, not a single company has attempted to create its own internal combustion engine with the intent of mass production. The country was relegated to using surplus engines for jeepneys, as well as assembling completely knocked-down (CKD) body kits for various Japanese and American car manufacturers (and even one type of Armored Personnel Carrier for the Philippine Army). Never was the country able to completely manufacture of any mass-produced automobile from top to bottom.
Due to higher-quality offerings of truck-cabbed alternatives with passenger modules in the rear, the jeepney is now dying a slow death. While they are still “King of the Road” in Manila, low sales and profitability has killed all but the most persistent jeepney assemblers of Cavite. Their demise, however, is more pronounced in Cebu, where Chinese manufactured “multicabs” and truck-cabbed jeepneys with Isuzu Elf and Toyota Hi-Ace engines, chassis and driver modules now rule.
An industrial pariah
This situation isn’t even isolated to the automotive industry: while the Philippines has been home to several multinational companies, none of these had resulted in the creation of large local counterpart enterprises. The Philippines hosted Intel since the 1970s, but has yet to have any local company that manufactures PC components (S3 Graphics, while founded by Filipinos Dado Banatao and Robert Yara, was established in Silicon Valley). This is in stark contrast with Taiwan, which is home to computing giants Acer and Asus, among others. Texas Instruments has long had its electronics plant in Baguio, yet no local electronics company has become prominent. American Power Supplies and International Business Machines has been in the country longer than Intel has. The list goes on and on.
It is obvious that, despite the brain drain brought about by the labor export industry, the country does not lack, or at least at several points in its history, has never lacked the means to produce technical expertise that industrialization requires. Neither is there a lack in investment and funding, as evidenced by the continued presence of big-name corporations in the country, notwithstanding moves to shift factories to China. Further evidence of the above is the continued establishment of business process outsourcing firms in the country, which implies both investment and skill.
The government is not entirely remiss in its support to local industry either. Just last month the Department of Science and Technology launched the One-Stop Information Shop of Technologies (OSIST) website (http://www.osist.dost.gov.ph) to assist technology experts and inventors in finding venture capitalists and buyers. While several online pundits question the PHP20 million funding of what essentially is a turtle-paced-loading website, the project will hopefully take off and become a useful tool in aiding inventors like Mr. Caroro in fielding tech innovations like his G-Car. It has to be noted, however that this is not the first time the DOST attempted to set up a program that it hoped would help local industries take off.
Asia’s uncommon manufacturing industry roots
Asia has, arguably, three main manufacturing powerhouses: Japan, China and South Korea, but they each have unique histories in terms of the growth of their manufacturing sectors.
Japan embarked on a sizable Meiji Emperor-sanctioned industrialization effort during the late 19th century, and while for most of mid-20th century they had the reputation of producing cheap imitations, relentless improvements in process and technology eventually allowed them to come up with advances above and beyond their Western counterparts.
China, meanwhile, isolated for much of the half-century after the Second World War, had to rely on reverse-engineering much of Western technology, as well as technology-sharing with the USSR, and thus almost forcefully expanded its local manufacturing capability, even before its shift to the capitalist market model.
South Korea, on the other hand, was a little bit more orchestrated, with the regime of Park Chung-hee implementing continuous 5-year development periods during the 1960s that nursed and encouraged industrialization, in a rapid expansion that was eventually termed as the “Miracle on the Han River”.
During the 1950s and 60s the Philippines enjoyed a vibrant economy and an apparently advanced manufacturing sector. The sense of security this brought, however, was false: the industries that the Philippines relied on were primarily American and non-indigenous; and whatever prosperity Filipinos enjoyed rested on the mistaken belief that these foreign investments will remain on the country indefinitely. By the time the problems brought about by the Marcos dictatorship manifested itself in economic collapse, the happy-go-lucky era of American-funded industrialization was already on the way out.
An unwanted local manufacturing industry
The local market was, itself, a challenge. While the Chinese had no choice but to use whatever products are allowed by the Communist government, and the Japanese and Korean markets are fiercely nationalistic in patronizing their own products, moneyed Filipinos were obsessing themselves with everything “state-side”. Everything imported from the US was a godsend; anything local was cheap and “bakya” (out-of-fashion).
Whatever local manufacturing industry offering there was on its own, save for those that were American-branded (e.g., Concepcion Industries’ locally manufactured Carrier air conditioners). Probably the only thriving local manufacturing industry was involved in textiles, clothing, or jeepney manufacture: the latter was even threatened to be usurped by the introduction of Asian Utility Vehicles like Ford’s Fierra and Toyota’s Tamaraw.
What eventually killed the jeep industry, however, were steady albeit imperfect improvements in the local transport systems, as well as increased spending power that weaned private vehicle owners to vans and cars and away from locally crafted jeepneys and owner-type jeeps. It did not help that the local market did not have a genuine automobile product to respond to the demand.
Questions in catching up with a global economy
It is not difficult to surmise that it is now nearly impossible to catch up to the manufacturing behemoth called China. It’s hard to compete with the business viability of going Chinese: cheap labor, power, and highly developed infrastructure trumps any sort of nationalist lament; it simply dictates against the principles of profitability and sustainability. It would be rather ironic to even note that Caroro and his G-Car might turn out to be better cheaply manufactured abroad than made in the country. It should be noted that the e-jeepneys in Makati, Bacolod and Cebu are all made in China.
However, the ill-effects of the Philippine labor-export industry tend to undermine whatever benefits, both real and unrealized, that the said industry has. Large populations of disunited families will be more damaging in the long-run, and skilled overseas labor has brought neither expertise nor industry that the country could positively exploit. The questions now arise: should the Philippines try, daunting as it may seem, to catch up with the Asian manufacturing giants? Should it refocus on other sectors, particularly in services (perhaps, business process outsourcing), which might have been effective for some economies (Hong Kong comes into mind)?
Will Filipino industrialization remain as an electric dream?
Popularity: 2% [?]
very very interesting.
Sell it to the Japanese para maingit mga Ayala at Lopez.
Jon, very rich and interesting account. For our neighbors (Japan, South Korea and China), the road to industrialization went through agrarian emancipation. That built the domestic base of consumers and shifted capital from land to industry. I’m not saying this as a ‘coulda woulda’, but as a recommendation for future action. I don’t think it’s too late to follow the templates that our neighbors used in order to industrialize.
why am i not surprised about the g-car. maybe history’s repeating itself.. like wat happened to engr. dingel’s water-powered engine
which concludes my question, is the real deal behind the country’s loans from the world bank or imf or whatever bank our country owes, is to limit our country into using the only products that those banks support which are led btw by those same developed countries which are big shareholders of the said bank/s?
is that why local inventions, have never been introduced to mainstream production in the country??
really?? is that why Philippines is 50 years (or more) behind the emerging asian countries which decided to lock themselves in so to speak to encourage nationalistic pride and develop and use products of their own which the philippines had seem to always failed to do?
Electric cars known as Reva G-Wiz Automatic Electric Vehicle are already being manufactured in India and exported in UK. It’s use as a means of transport is limited to a few. It can’t compete with the street cars in ferrying passengers.
Tesla motors is going to build an electric car manufacturing plant in california. Its Tesla Roadster is an electric sports car. Now it is going to manufacture TESLA Sedan targeting the middle income with a price tag of 60,000 per unit which I think is still a high price .
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/18/BUF312VVPP.DTL&type=autos
Dodge has its own electric car, the Zeo which can travel 250 miles in one charge.
Subaru has its own electric car called R1A which can be recharged in the household electrical outlet.
Before the businessmen think of investing in this kind of car, they have to consider the ff:
1. safety ( if it is driven along side with the big buses and reckless jeepney drivers, are the passengers safe?) What about its stability? Gigiwang ba pag nadaanan ng bus. So mga sidestreets lang ang gamit and not in the main thorughfares? Pag nabangga ba ito, ano ang protection ng passengers?
2. the price per unit and its estimated life.
3. the buyers
I know this does not give encouragement to the
inventors. My sister was one. She was given a presidential medal for her invention while she was a student at Manila Science High School.
There was an offer to buy the design. Not to be manufactured on a commercial scale but to kill the project and its chance to give competition to the product in the market. My sister abandoned the idea of enrolling science at UP. she chose to become a nurse.
And that’s the world of business. Big businesses eating the young even they hardly started their first steps.
sana suportahan ng gobyerno ng Pilipinas at mga local investors ang G-Car at iba pang invention ng mga Filipino Inventors. malaki maitutulong nito sa pagunlad ng bansa,makapagbibigay din ang mga ito ng karagdagang trabaho at karangalan para sa bansa…
electric cars for local use in the Philippines can be doable especially in the provinces. It should be cheaper than what is currently in the market. Selling it overseas without a brand name and history of quality service is too risky.
A comprehensive business plan with emphasis on its competitive advantage is a must to do. There is an opportunity cost for publicity. :)
agree with cat,though I commend jon for writing a very instructive piece like this to at least inform us on the plight of Filipino inventors.
IN other countries, they are considered as heroes. They are catalysts of innovation and they spur growth. Here, they are a neglected lot. Why? Because inventors are considered as threats to traditional businesses and MNCs.
The next government should take a second look at these inventions or innovations. They should be made part of government budgetary allocation. R&D should be one of the highest priority of government.
Paging government officials–instead of thinking of going abroad to allegedly purchase surveillance equipment (read: Dela Paz scam) or tinker with the Charter, why not think of something useful for a change. Enhance the R&D infrastructure here.
I mentioned the Dingel case to Blackshama before,
here is part of our exchange.I ended up agreeing with Blackshama,but Cathy also raised good points(12:17 am, above)
on what must be done.
http://www.filipinovoices.com/development-scholarships-are-they-worth-it
remember what happened to the e-jeepney for the ayala route;
naka tengga pa din.
mas pinili ng mga jeep makati ang imbento ng isa pang pinoy na used cooking oil as replacement for diesel(at least those in the PRC route).
Well, we also have to look at the other side of the coin (which I realize I have not emphasized enough in the article):
a) Seriously, an inventor not only needs to be technically competent, they have to be business and marketing savvy as well. Sustainability and profitability are not jargon to mishandle in the hands of a technical expert, in as much as high tech and quality are not jargon to mishandle in the hands of a marketing expert. Both skills have to come in somewhere.
b) The government can only do so much, and for a product to really take off into something with real commercial viability the government should be the last entity to approach. The reason is simple: the government is (supposedly) a non-profit entity. Once you take off, you don’t want its hands dipping into your coffers beyond the normal corporate taxes, which are by themselves atrocious in nature already.
——-
One thing I’d like to emphasize here is the way by which businesses grow and dominate. Take for example, Jollibee. My mother can make better palabok than they can. I can cook better spaghetti than they. We could make fried chicken that would blow Chickenjoy away. But we can’t blow Jollibee out of the water despite our perceived “superior” product offerings.
Why?
Because it’s NOT about the product alone, it’s about the SYSTEM that will allow for the creation of the product from supplier to processing to the restaurants to the diner’s tables. I might make better food than Jollibee can, but do I have the system to create and deliver that food to millions of hungry Filipino mouths across several countries?
I don’t have that expertise. Jollibee does.
Part of the failings of the jeepney manufacture sector is the failure to establish a sustainable and profitable system of manufacturing and distribution. G Car will itself fail without addressing *that* concern.
And, oh, as for Dingel and his water-powered-car? I think it’s a farce.
He himself admits that his demo engine employs a security-by-obscurity approach, e.g., some of the pipes and wires that you see are vestigial and serves no real purpose but to confuse any on lookers. That for me is a sneaky sign in itself: for all we know when those pipes and wires are all removed deep inside is a standard internal combustion engine. Physics also dictates that it will take a lot more power to derive hydrogen from water by hydrolysis than the engine can produce and at the same time consume for locomotion.
If he’s really sincere about his invention (and come to think of it, it’s been 30+ years since he came out with it) he would’ve long patented the process by which he turns water into fuel; even just the process in principle. That’d have covered his ass from copycats. Until today however, he hasn’t come up with a patent application, whether locally or in the US or elsewhere.
The Cat,
As for your sister, that’s the problem with science fairs. They openly expose ideas and innovations for everyone to see when some of them actually have a business implication. Businesses spend tons of money on R&D and invest on processes, so the reasoning behind “killing” her product is all but clear.
Your sister should’ve taken the deal further. She should’ve agreed to the buyout on the condition of getting employment in the company in return. Or she could’ve presented the product to a competitor, told them that the other company is actually thinking of developing it into a full-fledged product, and start a bidding war that is enough to fund her own company once she graduates from her actual desired course.
Of course her being in highschool then…
===========
I absolutely abhor the concept of tech/geek investors who do not appreciate business by and of itself. Too many of these inventors have romantic notions of saving the world and providing their products for “the benefit of everyone”, while in fact they would be better off profiting from it and then taking advantage of economies of scale to make their products affordable.
If there are geeks that understood the power their technical expertise held while at the same time appreciated and took advantage of the business implications of such, it would be Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. Hate the two as you may, but beneath the geek and the nerd personae are savvy businessmen who knew what was *really* important from the start, instead of basking in romantic save-the-world idealism.
Jon,
very well said on “SYSTEM”.
Karl,
for Dingle,try google searching Stanley Meyers invention and his death. it’s interesting.
As I said before, Pinoy business should invest in this electric car.
But that is contingent whether our own Taipans and Kastilaloys really do have enough stake in the Philippines besides raking in the consumer driven profits from retailing.
I dare say that none of them have that vision save for malls near the sea! While the Taipans are into scholarships for the needy, Many of these scholarships provide exportable labour. Three of the Taipans we have are into running of universities. This can be an opportunity for them to make these schools as research and technology incubators for their own businesses.
To give credit to Ayala, they seem to be heading somewhat in the innovation direction even if it hasn’t put up its own school. However we will have to see if that would work.
The government has to do its bit though. R and D requires massive state investment. Our Glorious Queen can be credited for having that bit of vision to start the ball rolling. DOST has the esprit in Estrella Alabastro but like any ministry, it is troubled by lack of staff. Thus the DOST’s mandate is blunted.
What we in the science community have to do is to convince the Taipans that malls won’t save the Philippines. A science-technology-service economy will.
Take for example environmental rehabilitation technologies. This would bring in lots of cash in the next 20 years. There has been little local investment here. This should be the focus of our cutting edge science.
Also I’d like to add further. Our science programs in the universities have left out science entrepreneurship. I have met many Pinoy PhDs who have developed technologies but have no business skills to market them. These skills can be developed in the MSc level, while in the PhD, the focus is on developing the science and technology.
To do this there should be strong programs in science and business. We have universities with respectable programs in both. However our atavistic Pinoy university culture (turfing, hot air production, primadonna complex!) prevents innovative collaboration. In my ‘ang galing mo” alma mater, there has been little collaboration between the business and science faculties. This is needed for developing a technopreneurship program.
Three PhDs in our department lament this. We have worked in overseas universities where innovative multidisciplinarity has developed new technologies especially in environmental remediation. Multidisciplinarity is extremely needed if we want to have science-business competitiveness.
As I wrote earlier, Ayala seems to be heading in this direction but it needs more push.
blackshama,
I too have high hopes for the S&T Park Ayala is putting up at UP.
I wonder, is there a way for us to evangelize entrepreneurship to our S&T community and educate them in the value of such? I have a feeling that while that is lacking, the local S&T community is intelligent enough to be receptive of it.
Our government should at least focus on getting private sectors more involve on R&D. A tax incentives for risky science businesses is a step or a call for government financial commitment. In order to succeed, Philippine Universities must actively influence, exert participation and be internationally attractive. We must internationalize our higher educational system and improve higher educational infrastructure to expose our raw talents -a new innovation.
leytenian,
I haven’t read up on the PEZA mandate, but I do know that S&T companies already enjoy taxation perks in Special Economic Zones. It is the interest and participation of the local community that is lacking.
There are, of course already examples of serial technopreneurs, mostly in software development. Joey Gurango and Dado Banatao are in this field. Cliff Eala is another person who comes to mind. There ought to be others, but I’m in software development so these are the guys I know about (and I do know Cliff personally).
I hope to follow their footsteps someday.
so i have a question about this car… it says it can go a maximum of 40kph. Isn’t this too slow for EDSA (traffic notwithstanding)?
if so, it would really be within-city travel, not between city, or within Metro Manila.
GabbyD,
Precisely — that’s another point to address. I’m not sure if Caroro really believes that 40kph is fast enough for his car to even begin selling the idea. Add that to Cat’s concerns above (e.g., safety).
Our inventors really need to learn to address these things before lamenting that “the government does not help them”.
Jon,
I also thought Dingel’s water poowered car was a farce. But could it have been a hydrogen fuel cell concept, which also uses water as a “fuel”?
As for the “system” required to make the G Car really go, that would have to be the energy production system too. Wind and wave and solar need to be incentivized somehow, though I guess the “headwinds” against alternative energy are rising as oil prices fall. Edsa traffic is building up again. I say keep the damn oil prices high to force the change that we must inevitably make. Perhaps through taxes that get funneled into R&D.
For example there are all these mountain ridges where I literally have to carry my bike across because of how strong the winds are.
My friend who works for an MNC in the Philippines was able to have two of his inventions patented with the help of the Company’s patent lawyers. The patent lawyers are the ones who do the research on whether an idea is patentable or not. If it is patentable, then a decision is made on whether to go ahead with patent application or to publish. (Publishing is a defensive move to prevent other persons or organizations from patenting the same invention.) Of course the patent goes to the portfolio of that MNC. My friend got a cash reward for his efforts.
If the DOST has a similar program of assisting local would-be inventors (by providing legal assistance like the one given by the MNC i mentioned), then i believe the patent portfolio of Filipinos or Filipino organizations would grow and we can eventually give the other countries a run for their money.
We have the NSDB
under DOST. India has National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board
The assistance does not stop in the invention.
In the Philippines, the inventors do the filing of the application. MY brother from PISAY and an NSDB scholar at UP applied for a patent for his invention. Nah, he did not join any fair nor publish it as a paper.
He found out there was another application for the same idea only with a little alteration.
It is only here in the States when he found about troll companies. Patent troll companies are those who are always on the lookout for new products for patenting. They own portfolio of patents and sue others or prevent the approval of patents while they do not do anything to commercially produce the technology or product patented.So we call the patent office, a cemetery of dead ideas.
Although the patent should be approved according to priority dates, companies with a battery of patent lawyers can make it difficult for a newbie inventor to have his invention patented.
Since the requirement for patent application requires detailed description of the process and drawings for illustration, anybody who can get hold of the patent specification can always duplicate and make a little alteration and apply for a patent. Anyway there is no requirement to build a prototype of the product.
If you think espionage and James Bond are all about world threat from terrorists, you’re mistaken. It is more about new patent and product espionage and trade secret theft.
That is why a friend who is a secretary of one of the patent lawyers is receiving a salary more than an ordinary executive because she has a lot of secrets to keep.
DJB,
The fuel cells in the space shuttle use raw hydrogen gas and raw oxygen (both stored in compressed liquid or solid form) to catalyze and in the process create electricity. The byproduct is pure water, which can be used by astronauts for drinking while in orbit.
Dingle doesn’t explain what process occurs in his engine. He implies that it is the opposite (e.g., hydrolysis: electricity tears apart the hydrogen and oxygen atoms, and both gases are then used for the combustion process. If these are combusted, then the byproduct is also water vapor.
The clincher of course is the law of conservation of energy. If Dingle’s engine can produce enough kinetic energy to both run the car and generate enough electricity to again hydrolyze water, he essentially created a perpetual motion machine.
As for the G-Car, it has to be plugged into a standard 220V socket for 8 hours for a range of 80km per charge. There are already a bunch of electric cars abroad that can go much much further, and I don’t know if the G Car also has an internal charger like that of the Prius which uses the potential generated by braking to recharge the battery.
cvj,
I do hope that the DOST does help in patents. The reality, however, is that patents are really only half of the story in the business. And mind you, China relentlessly and blatantly ignores patents and guess what, they still rule. So there’s something beyond patents that we have to look into.
Cat,
Precisely what is needed — again we have a lot of skilled technical people who tend to be ignorant when it comes to business. They should be educated in it lest they remain nothing but mad scientist archetypes (always in the lab, only cares that the “invention” works, doesn’t care what other people say — well they should start learning to care about how the market reacts to their products).
Jon, i agree with your observation on China. At our stage of economic development, we also have to incorporate some elemnt of ‘relentlessly and blatantly ignor[-ing] patents’. Our neighbors who industrialized had to concurrently adopt a tactic of imitation (e.g. reverse engineering) and innovation (via support for R&D in targeted industries). That should be part of the government’s industrial policy.
g-car is sooo cute and interesting, i just hope that our gov’t would take these inventions seriously.
I sure will go there and try this g-car.
reverse engineering, license purchases.
This is the part where I dared grab the microphone during a roundtable discussion(Topic :build operate transfer,etc.) where I was only supposed to sit there and shut up.
The phds there are saying that Filipinos have the talent why not just train them to build everything ourselves.(I think it was about Northrail or something)I mentioned to them that even china have to purchase licenses for their speed rail’s technology(those immitated). reverse engineering may be good but tney tried to build a c130 but failed.
since my dad was giving me dagger looks I shut the F up and said thank you,they acknowledged it and continued from where i started. The above topics where even discussed, I caused them to segue from BOT to inventors,to reverse engineering.
Every month there is a so called strategic studies group meeting hosted by the national defense college, where they invite PHDS, some of them are main stays there and they brain storm and submit to neda if it is necessary for a neda approval,or the necessary agency’s approval.
Not all are friendly to the admin mind you,like the UP guys, they can talk all they want against the government, so long as it is mahinahon na medyo bastos.We are talking long term here ,but the long term includes the present.
Karl (at 11:07 am), the Japanese likewise failed in their first attempts at reverse engineering, but they did not give up trying. For example, in 1958, Toyota (introduced the ‘Toyopet’ to the US market where it failed miserably. Today, Toyota is the world leader. It might not be in cars, but there are other technologies and industries to choose from. Earlier, i blogged about an advocacy by Dennis Posadas to build a Solar Energy manufacturing ecosystem between businesses, universities and government here in the Philippines, following the Silicon Valley model. The 21st century is young, and there are other such industries that we can choose to develop locally.
Yes I do remember that entry. Maiba tayo,about wind energy if we can find a way to harness the wind energy in that highest peak in luzon somewhere in Benget, i wonder If the wind mill makers can find a way to make that possible.
Karl, yes that would be a good idea. Same goes with Mount Apo, Mount Banahaw and other peaks. We can also harness the winds from the eastern side of the archipelago during the typhoon season and the Northeast monsoon. Because both wind and solar are intermittent sources, the R&D on improving battery technologies would be applicable. That’s another potential area to target for industrialization.
Karl,
It’s really dangerous when the NIH(not-invented-here) attitude sets in too early. It’s not necessary to produce everything here at once, what’s important is to learn the processes involved and perfect them before any costly mistakes are made.
That’s the flipside of reverse engineering. While you learn how a thing works, you usually never figure out *why* it works that way. Many times there are deep, long-winded reasons on why designs have taken the direction that they have.
Relevant to this thread, students from Mapua won the gold medal in the Inventions World Cup in Shangai, beating 84 other countries for their bomb disposal robot. (via Good News Pilipinas)
cvj,
Yep, heard of that too.
Hope they find a way to mass produce, market and export the MAC as a low-cost bomb disposal robot especially to countries beset by terrorist threats. :)
Jon,
read you loud and clear. :)
Yeah, that MAC robot must be mass produced, I remember that our best bomb diposal cop failed to stop a bomb,so to prevent those things(death of a cop(legendary or not))from happening, that Mac is a must.
Karl, Jon, if we can foster an academic, legal and economic ecosystem where we discover, nurture and support similar such inventors, don’t you agree that home-grown industrialization is an achievable goal?
cvj,
I’ll go with blackshama’s suggestion, which has also been what I have been saying: there has to be a way to either a) find, nurture and develop entrepreneurs who are interested in funding sci/tech R&D and/or b) teach sci/tech people entrepreneurship and marketing to help them sell their ideas to investors, VCs, or customers themselves.
I guess we can closely pattern it to a Silicon Valley/Bangalore model wherein there’s a venue to nurture tech startups.
Jon (at 3:46 pm), i agree. That’s also what i told Karl above (at October 26th, 2008 11:31 am). BTW, Dennis Posadas has wrote about the mechanics of the Silicon Valley model in his book Rice and Chips: Technopreneurship and Innovation in Asia. IMHO, it’s a good survey.
For my part, i believe that a shift by our Oligarchs away from allocating their capital in land, real estate, trade, financial services towards industry (as in actually making stuff) is needed. [BTW, i support making software as well.] Let the small farmers prosper so that we can build domestic demand that can reinforce the virtuous circle.
cvj,
Wow. Great book find. Must put that in my must-haves from Amazon. I’m scheming to put up my own software startup someday, once our current services-oriented venture stabilizes.
My concern right now re “oligarchs” is how to convince them to wean away from, or at least diversify into, industry. While I trust their business acumen, I have a feeling that there are some untapped/unfound industrial markets out there that they should be able to exploit but are too lazy too look for and/or it’s not lucrative enough for them. Ayala does have its own IT segment, however, as well as PLDT.
As for software development, my current lament is that too many local companies are into outsourcing, e.g., making customized software for specific clients, rather than product development, e.g., making standardized software that can be sold to much more clients. I do know of a few ISVs (independent software vendor) that create market-specific, generalized software solutions (one of them is a good friend of mine). If that segment is relentlessly developed eventually we can come up with our own equivalents of Baidu, Facebook, or Twitter, or whatever widely popular web app/service and/or software there is.
Jon, i suppose the Oligarchs are too ‘lazy’ because it is easier for them to make money off land and real estate (as well as natural monopolies granted to them by government). That’s why land reform (rural and urban) are game changing steps that our neighbors had to do to divert the entrepreneurial classes towards industry. (We also need capital controls so investments won’t go abroad instead.)
As for software development, i agree with your assessment. India has companies such as Infosys which already sell banking software around the region. I suppose what gave Infosys a head start is that it first sold its software to domestic banks which they enhanced to sell to the general market.
Another opportunity we can harness is that there a lot of ‘old’ software being used by Companies in the First World which are no longer being actively enhanced (for example retail software being used by Walmart). Our local entrepreneurs can offer to buy the rights, use the revenue from software maintenance as launch pads to develop newer software products. There is a lot of tacit knowledge locked up into these legacy software that can be transplanted into the next generation. That way you don’t have to start from scratch and relearn the same thing all over again.
Philippines is still interesting.
Thanks for the suggestions you have contributed here. Something important I would like to state is that computer system memory needs generally go up along with other improvements in the know-how. For instance, any time new generations of processor chips are made in the market, there’s usually a related increase in the type demands of both the computer system memory as well as hard drive space. This is because the application operated by these cpus will inevitably boost in power to benefit from the new engineering.
Basic industries required for industrialization – steel, plastics and chemicals are not integrated and highly dependent on imports of intermediary products, a practice bequeathed by the import substitution strategy of the 60′s.