The presidential coordinating council on research and development (R&D) will release in three months a draft of a sustained R&D investment program that will meet the United Nation’s recommended one percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and one that can transcend changes in administration.

Aside from a bill on R&D that’s being drafted by the University of the Philippines Law Center, a comprehensive R&D investment program is now being prepared by an inter-agency group.

"We need a national roadmap for R&D. We’re looking at whether this will need a law. The presidential coordinating council will release this proposal within the next three months. We have to spend more on R&D, not just the public sector, but also the private sector," said Department of Science and Technology (DoST) Secretary Estrella F. Alabastro in an interview.

The thrust of this proposal may range on the development of simpler technology needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for which government has a program called Small Enterprises Technology

Upgrading Program (SETUP) or the more advanced chip design in microelectronics. It may also involve program for infrastructure needed in implementing R&D programs.

Alabastro said the country has to sustain R&D investments amid the current focus on this as shown by the increase in DoST’s budget by around 50 percent from P3 billion to more than P5 billion.

"The government has put in a huge amount of investment for R&D, and the worry of the scientific community is on how to sustain this after this administration," she said.

The country still has a long way to go to be able to meet the recommended investment in R&D in order to make an impact in a developing country. This is reportedly placed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at least one percent of a state’s gross domestic product.

But Alabastro said the government has already widely improved the investment environment as the public sector has initiated investment in it. Public sector investment in R&D is estimated at 80 percent of total value in R&D.

"But we need more private sector investment," she said, and providing for an enabling environment may further be included in the proposal.

"We need to put the right environment. We have to encourage them that if they locate here, they can work on the R&D level."

With the initiative on R&D investment of the public sector, investments from multinational companies may subsequently come in. This may be true as inspired by public investments in generic medicine in a developing country like India that later led to investments in R&D by multinational pharmaceutical firms for branded drugs.

Attracting multinational companies to locate in the Philippines is one of the reasons why government has started putting in investment for the P3-billion Engineering for Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) since 2007 which aims to boost human resource development for R&D.