MAKATI, Philippines – Continuing its implementation of the country’s Inclusive Innovation Industrial Strategy (i3S), the Department of Trade and Industry, in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and other national government agencies, will present the “Inclusive Filipinnovation and Entrepreneurship Roadmap” during the Inclusive Innovation Conference (IIC) 2018 on October 2-3, 2018 at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila.

DTI Secretary Ramon M. Lopez explains, “With intense competition in both the domestic and global markets, we need to focus our efforts on innovation. Innovation is crucial because this will spur increases in productivity among our MSMEs and startups, leading to jobs generation and inclusive growth in the country.”

The Roadmap contains recommendations and strategies for the country to seize market opportunities and address the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. After analyzing the country’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem and conducting series of stakeholder consultations throughout the country, the Roadmap focuses on six major elements: (1) strong government-academe-industry collaboration; (2) human capital development; (3) access to funding and finance; (4) innovation policy and commercialization of research; (5) entrepreneurial culture and support for startups, MSMEs, and large enterprises to become more innovative; and (6) development of industry clusters to position innovative industries for rapid growth. These will be implemented through the regional inclusive innovation centers (RIICs), which will be established initially in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, and Legaspi.

Secretary Lopez adds, “The RIICs will catalyze entrepreneurial opportunities and job generation in the regions expanding throughout the entire country. Our vision is a healthy and inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem where stakeholders work together and collaborate in a conducive business and policy environment and driven by a creative talent pool and strong government-academe-industry relationship that supports the incubation of innovation and market-oriented research.”

With the theme “Filipinnovation for Entrepreneurship & Inclusive Growth,” the IIC 2018 will bring together stakeholders from the public and private sectors, including key officials from national and regional government, industry stakeholders and business groups, and members of the academic and research community throughout the country to discuss how to leapfrog to industrialization; accelerate government-industry-education collaboration and link innovation and entrepreneurship; and build regional inclusive innovation centers across the country.

The IIC 2018 will also include Slingshot, DTI’s conference that brings together the country’s startup community, which will be held in partnership with the DOST. Technologies funded by DOST will be pitched for possible partners and clients and updates on the DTI’s Startup Ecosystem Development Program will be discussed.

Details about the Conference are available at: http://industry.gov.ph/inclusive-innovation-conference-2018/.