'PH has human capital to compete in digital age economy'

MANILA - The Philippines is gifted with an "extremely good" human capital which enables it to compete in a digital age economy, according to World Economic Forum (WEF) young global leader Winston Damarillo. However, the Philippines still has a long way to go as it has yet to tap the full potential of its engineers and scientists, said Damarillo, a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist. "To me we haven't really begun to tap yet our opportunity in our creative talent here in the Philippines. I think we have achieved a lot, but we have a long way to go in terms of growing that even better," he told ANC on Thursday. He said the Philippines has not invested enough in technology. He pointed out that the talents of Filipino scientists and engineers are being utilized not by the Philippines but by other countries. "The success stories are scarce because we haven't really spent the effort to build products here in the Philippines. Our technical talents are being used to build products for others, for other companies abroad." "I think in order for us to establish our self, to distinguish our self as having made it in the technology space, we have to build our own products here. It needs to be branded 'Made in the Philippines.' It needs to be clearly articulated to be engineered by a Filipino," he said. Damarillo said the government must improve the science and technology education in the country, and also encourage the public to be entrepreneurs and to build companies. "In order to make that happen, we need to make the business climate friendly for small businesses. We need to make the climate friendly for foreign investments to invest in high technology here in the Philippines. And we need to showcase our great creative talent here in the Philippines," he said. Damarillo also said the government must continue harnessing technology for disaster management and mitigation, noting that economic gains won't be felt if the country keeps experiencing disasters.