In its first meeting
Tuesday, the Regional Research, Development and Innovation Committee (RRDIC)
assigned specific tasks to state universities and colleges (SUCs) to do
research on priority commodities.
“Since there is no
committee in the past, we just consolidated research and development priorities
from different sectors. We have to make into one and assign specific
commodities to each SUCs to really create economic development,” said RRDIC
chair Edgardo Esperancilla, Department of Science and Technology (DOST)
regional director.
Members of the new
committee are regional directors of the Departments of Agriculture, of
Environment and Natural Resources, and of Health; Commission on Higher
Education; presidents of SUCs and higher education institutions; and chairs of
various consortia in the region.
Also included as
members are presidents of industry groups with science and technology related
advocacies, private sector representatives, officials from the local government
units.
The region has
existing consortium for agriculture, aquatic resources, health research and
development, industry and energy, and emerging technology.
The proposal to
create RRDIC was pushed in December 2016. RDC members reviewed the proposal in
three quarterly meetings until it was finally approved on December 13, 2017.
Within the first two
quarters of the year, the committee will also come up with the proposed Eastern
Visayas Regional Research and Development Agenda for the years 2018 to 2022.
Now that new
committee was created, Esperancilla is upbeat that more experts will engage in
research and development.
With only 667
personnel, Eastern Visayas had the lowest number of R&D workers in the
Visayas and the sixth lowest nationwide in 2013. (SQM/PNA)
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