SMX Convention Center. On the occasion of the celebration of the National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) at the SMX Convention Center in Manila, the cabinet secretaries (and undersecretaries) from the Departmentof Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Departmentof Agriculture (DA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Tourism (DOT), Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) met and signed today a Convergence Memorandum of Understanding on Community-Based Sustainable Livelihood and Development Enterprises in the Countryside.
The
Memorandum of Understanding on Convergence would move together the agencies
involved and unite their efforts and activities with DOST to provide a combination
of multiple services, programs, projects, technologies, and provide access to other
developmental interventions that will promote sustainable development and access to programs such as DOST’s
Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SET-UP), among others. The DOST SET-UP
is a more focused program of assistance for small and medium enterprises
(SMEs). SET-UP is a nationwide strategy to encourage and assist SMEs to adopt
technological innovations to improve their operations and thus boost their
productivity and competitiveness. This is of special interest to the DAR's agrarian reform communities (ARCs) project where agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) are transforming themselves into being farmer-entrepreneurs and agrarian reform beneficiaries organizations (ARBOs) are now engaging into economies of scale through modernization under the DAR-ARCCESS program and the block sugar farming, among others.
This year’s NSTW theme is “Science, Technology and Innovation: The
Road to a Smarter Philippines,” emphasizes the role of science and
technology in improving the peoples’ future through DOST’s projects and
services that will further socio-economic development through DOST’s
technologies such as the Advance Materials Testing Laboratory (ADMATEL) which
is the testing facility for the nation’s semiconductor industry; Automated GuidewayTransit (AGT) system (currently in use at UP-Diliman), an alternative
transportation system; PROJECT NOAH as a tool to address climate change; DOST’s
Certified Seed Production Program for the agricultural sector; and other Internet Communication Technology
(ICT) driven tools to make the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry more
competitive.
The
NSTW runs from July 23-27, 2013 (Tuesday until Saturday) at the SMX Convention
Center, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City and will showcase the latest innovations,
interventions and inventions of Filipino scientists, engineers and various
works by the entire scientific community. /christiandsales
