[As Prepared]

[Greetings]

Building upon our years of partnership with the Filipino people, USAID continues to support Philippine aspirations for inclusive growth. In line with this, we strategically build upon Filipino talent and expand opportunities for science, technology and innovation to advance, broaden and sustain growth.

This commitment stems from USAID’s mandate to empower our partner countries to advance their own development journeys.

In 2013, USAID began investing in innovation and higher education in the Philippines by launching the Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for Development program, or STRIDE.

We knew that strengthening the innovation ecosystem required government, industry and academia to work together. USAID is proud to have been part of the process of building and nurturing relationships between academia and the private sector. Six years later, the passion, commitment and creativity of our partners have forged many great collaborations and yielded amazing results.

On the government side, our partners from the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Science and Technology were the first to sign an agreement to work together on innovation.

This led to last year’s launch of the Inclusive Filipinnovation and Entrepreneurship Roadmap, a framework that lays the foundation for a whole-of-government approach to achieve innovation- and entrepreneurship-led economic growth.

On the industry side, private sector partners who were initially reluctant to work with academia eventually matched every USAID dollar invested in university research grants with their own funds. I’m happy to note that the industry’s appetite to engage with universities continues to grow, due to the improved enabling environment created by DOST, DTI, and the Commission on Higher Education, matched by significant increases in available funding for universities.

On the university side, we always knew that the talent was there. But the excellence we saw surpassed even our own optimistic expectations. We were time and again impressed by the world-class research and talent from across the country.

To capitalize on this momentum, last year, USAID extended STRIDE for another three years, with an infusion of an additional 250 million-peso investment from the American people. This new funding bolsters the ongoing efforts of Filipino institutions and people to strengthen higher education and transform the innovation landscape in the Philippines.

For example, we have been supporting the Philippine government roll out the Regional Inclusive Innovation Centers, while providing technical assistance on innovation-related activities. We also continue to support the development of university-based Knowledge and Technology Transfer Offices, Career Centers and Professional Science Masters programs.

And because of the critical role that state universities and colleges play in human capital development, we will continue our partnership with all of you through the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges.

PASUC represents nearly 50 percent of the Filipino college student population, who will soon comprise a major portion of the country’s skilled human capital. It is important this pool of human capital resources gets immersed in innovation. Your universities also utilize a significant proportion of the research and innovation funding from DOST, CHED and others.

Efforts to improve the innovation ecosystem must take into account the foundational role that you and your universities play. This is why today’s launch of the PASUC-led “Platform for Innovating SUCs for Industry 4.0” or PISI, is critical.

It signals your commitment as leaders of state universities and colleges for the Philippines to become more competitive and relevant in this disruptive era of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

The platform is also a way for you to identify the challenges and opportunities so you can successfully prepare the Filipino youth for the future world of work.

I wish to commend PASUC President Dr. Tirso Ronquillo and all of you for the PISI launch. We at USAID are pleased to have been able to help, and we look forward to future engagements.

I would also like to thank the STRIDE team from RTI International, led by Dr. Richard Abendan, for all of their excellent work.

Finally, I would like to thank our friends in the Philippine government and in the private sector for the wonderful partnership. USAID will continue to be your partner on this journey of creating a vibrant innovation ecosystem that supports a more prosperous Philippines.

Maraming salamat at mabuhay!