Lacson prods Duterte to lure Musk, tech investors with R&D spending

SEN. Panfilo M. Lacson suggested last Sunday that the Philippines can attract billionaire Elon Musk and other known technology investors with “better spending” on research and development (R&D).

“Instead of Filipino inventors, scientists and other experts leaving the country to seek greener pastures abroad,” Lacson prodded the Duterte government to consider inviting noted businessmen like Musk to invest in the country.

Lacson, Partido Reporma chairman running for president in the upcoming national elections, affirmed in a radio interview over the weekend that tech investors would look more favorably on the Philippines if the government strengthens its support for research and development.

“If investors see there’s real support from the government and we can produce and enhance the Philippines’s homegrown talents, maybe Musk will come over here because the talent is here,” the senator said.

“Maybe he (Musk) would even invest here,” Lacson suggested, adding: “Instead of recruiting our investors, our scientists going to America and earning a living there, Musk would probably build a factory here in the Philippines so our countrymen could work in them.”

But Lacson, a 3-term senator, observed that the Philippines is not likely to attract any tech investors to the country if research and development continues to take a backseat in the country.

“The future-proof strategy I mentioned… Do you know what our country’s greatest asset is? Our people. We are not harnessing them, so they are leaving.”

The Senator recalled that even when he was chief of the Philippine National Police from 1999 to 2001, he was pushing to “strengthen the organization’s R&D” because he experienced the problems related to low funding for innovation and improving processes and services.

“That was why a big part of the institutional amendments I made (in the Senate) are additional budgets for research and development. That’s where we will prosper. It may be for the long term…. But we have so many talents that we’re wasting; they’re going abroad and their (output)— they are part of the inventions we are buying, which are expensive,” he said in Filipino.

Lacson laments that “the problem is the government is only spending 0.4 percent of the national budget on R&D.” He said this should be raised to at least 1 percent so that Filipino homegrown talent can be harnessed with more government support.

“We will be the ones to reap the fruits (of their inventions) as we progress,” the senator-presidential bet said.

Noting that China was spending significantly on their R&D, which is reflected in their high gross domestic product (GDP), Lacson said: “Why is China so prosperous? Their GDP is so high, they keep on exporting because they are focused on research and development.”

Citing tech company Huawei alone, he added: “Do you know how much they are plowing back into R&D? 15 percent of their profits go back to R&D; so their technology investments are always competitive.”