UP ISSI Yearend Report | Flashback 2011

THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE

UP INSTITUTE FOR SMALL-SCALE INDUSTRIES ISSUE NO. 14

UP ISSI Yearend Report

WARM THANKS FROM THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO DELIVERED TO YOU THE WALL NEWS YEAR-ROUND

UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES Institute for Small-Scale Industries E. Virata Hall, E. Jacinto Street, UP Campus, Diliman, Quezon City

Pioneering. Innovating. Entrepreneuring.

Page 2

Forum on Innovation for SMEs Towards Global Competitiveness: A Rundown U

P ISSI held last November 15 an exclusive forum on “Innovation for SMEs Towards Global Competitiveness”.

Attended by some ISSI and SERDEF staff as well as board members and trustees of the foundation, the forum highlighted the importance of innovation for the radical growth of small and medium enterprises towards economic prosperity, inclusive growth and global competitiveness.

SERDEF trustee Yolanda T. dela Cruz led the invocation while SERDEF chair Francisco R. Floro delivered the welcome remarks.

Mr. Floro noted that innovation, globalization and competitiveness are buzzwords that are now very much part of the language of economic development.

Meanwhile, as a precursor to Usec. dela Peña’s presentation, UP ISSI director Prof. Nestor O. Rañeses put the forum in context by presenting the 2011 Global Innovation Index, an annual publication by the international graduate business school and research institution INSEAD which ranks 125 countries or economies across the world in terms of their innovation capabilities and results. According to the survey the Philippines ranks no. 91 in terms of innovation, lags behind its Southeast Asian neighbors Singapore and Hong Kong (which landed in the top ten) and spends on innovation way lower than the most innovative companies in the world.

be the competitive advantages of businesses, but now innovation has taken over.

The main highlight of the forum was the talk of Department of Science and Technology Undersecretary for S & T Services Fortunato “Boy” dela Peña . He said that in technology-based entrepreneurship “you And if you cannot be the best, you should [at least] be different.”

“Innovation is the application of [new] knowledge in production to increase value [in the customer or producer sense], ” he added.

Professor Rañeses also noted that productivity and quality used to

ISSUE NO. 14

STAFF NEWS