Press Release
January 20, 2008

PLDT, SMART, GLOBE not investing enough on R&D -- Angara

Senator Edgardo Angara today called on information communications technology (ICT) companies PLDT, SMART, AND GLOBE to invest in technological research and development (R&D). Such investments, he said, would be beneficial both for the country and the ICT companies in the long run.

"Currently, our ICT companies such as Globe, PLDT and Smart are raking in record high revenues, but still opt to import foreign technology in the form of boxed solutions," said Angara. The Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) predicts ICT companies had a US$5 billion revenue in 2007.

According to Angara, chair of the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) and former chair of the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM), "There seems to be little impetus for these companies to study technology and undertake research to innovate in high value products and services. They merely rely on importing them."

"This situation should definitely change. It is high time our companies step up to more advanced fields in ICT. We would all benefit from a 'Bell Labs' replica in the Philippines -- where fundamental advances and breakthroughs in communications and information theory are discovered, formulated, and translated into useful products that make life easier for all of us," asserted Angara.

"With technological R&D, the country will graduate from such low-end tasks as making applications running on SMS in cellular networks to developing high-value tools such as communications techniques for mobile phones, embedded hardware and processors for network switches," said Angara.

Senator Angara pointed out that Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and other technological giants could license such high-value tools from us.

"We would see our products in every mobile phone and base station that these giants sell and deploy worldwide," Angara said. "We will be able to secure a larger slice of the global ICT revenue pie. And the country will be seen as a significant player in the ICT field."

Angara is a former President of the University of the Philippines (UP) and, as a Senator, authored many of the country's education reform laws including the Free High School Act, CHED, TESDA, GASTPE.

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