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News Innovation brainstorm takes on 12 big challenges for PH

Innovation brainstorm takes on 12 big challenges for PH

Source: Inquirer

The problem with innovations is that innovators are often outsiders with no access to the problems they could actually solve.

The companies and governments who own these problems feel great internal and external pressure to resolve them. Ironically, this pressure often creates paralysis, because transparency in discussing these issues opens executives to harsh criticism and even financial repercussions. Companies therefore often resort to declaring a problem “unsolvable” or invest in very public “theatrical” solutions with limited benefit.

But now, an unusual new movement has been created to change all that. And to everyone’s surprise; it is rapidly gaining traction:

Digital Pilipinas, founded by popular nationalist and tech advocate Amor Maclang has quickly and quietly built the first independently managed innovation ecosystem, where Industry, Government, Educators and Tech Innovators come together to candidly discuss industry problems and possibilities, form working groups and find real solutions.

In and landmark first undertaking last October, government officials, industry leaders and technologists walked into Green Sun, sat down at a large U-shaped table with their notebooks and a lot of coffee and challenged 12 major areas of concern. Those conversations, often heated, but surprisingly collegial were turned into a series of white papers just released on the Digital Pilipinas website. These white papers were authored by Digital Pilipinas led by Convenor Amor Maclang, KPMG R.G. Manabat and Co., led by Vice Chairman Noel Bonoan, and co-authored by ACUBELAW led by Managing Partner Atty. Jan Aliling and DOST-Mapua Think and Tinker Laboratory represented by General Manager Jhaze Asuncion.

Here is what they discussed: 

ESG and Green Finance

They say success has many parents but failure is an orphan. But when it comes to companies trying to do the right thing, failure looks more like a public inheritance nobody wants and everyone is stuck with. E.S.G. stands for Environmental Societal and Governance, collectively representing every area of responsibility you wish corporations would take seriously. Many try, some more successfully than others. For small companies, the very human desire to be one of the good guys is often at odds with keeping their business afloat. Since SMEs collectively are such a large contributor to employment and the economy, the best approach is for educators and local governments to lead initiatives for incremental adoption of ESG. Suppliers which are ESG compliant and affordable techniques for implementation would be highlighted under this program.

Logistics and Supply Chain

On the flip side of logistics is mobility and transport. Being inefficient here is very painful to everyone who spends way too much time and money safely departing and arriving. While infrastructure plays a big part, technology is surprisingly a critical component.

The key words are interoperability and intermodality, because in the Philippines, many trips require getting out of one vehicle and onto another. There are also many systems governing the roads and transport systems. In other countries, those systems are linked. Such as single ticket purchase for every vehicle used to take a trip.

Mobility and Transport

On the flip side  of logistics is mobility and transport. Being inefficient here is very painful to everyone who spends way too much time and money safely departing and arriving. While infrastructure plays a big part, technology is surprisingly a critical component.

The key words are interoperability and intermodality, because in the Philippines, many trips require getting out of one vehicle and onto another. There are also many systems governing the roads and transport systems. In other countries, those systems are linked. Such as single ticket purchase for every vehicle used to take a trip.

Energy

It’s no secret that consumer decision making power dictates the choices made available to us in an marketplace supporting open and fair competition. In the area of energy consumption, this option has not been historically available.  So we want clean, renewable energy, but we can’t choose it. Except, there is technology, available now, which can put exactly that power in the hands of consumers. While its common practice to vilify every company in the energy production and distribution chain, this revealing discussion shows that even they want to empower the Consumer, to make the right choice. 

Insurtech

Insurance as an industry, started off reluctant to dive into technological transformation but is now one of the most aggressive new innovation sectors in the country. The key driver of this conversation was collaboration with 3rd party tech platforms to make new offers to new markets.  This is a skillset which sounds easy but is apparently quite complex as legacy insurers lack internal automation and are not focused on innovation. But with some early adopters finding rapid growth, it seems like the band wagon may be warming up.

Fintech

The progenitor of this revolution, the Financial Technology sector tackled a controversial topic: Data Ownership. Currently, we have data privacy laws which skirt a very uncomfortable reality: Any information about you collected by a company, government or individual is considered their property. So while data privacy limits what they can do with that information, the Fintech community envisions a future where any information about you is considered your property. This direction, championed by technologists working on decentralization will have far reaching consequences for current business giants who consider your data their gold.

Smart Cities and Proptech

Smart Cities straddles the dream of a future world and the dystopian surveillance state nightmare. But the reality of property-based technology is that most of it, when used properly has real impact on quality of life, improving access to resources, livelihood and services that make a city more attractive to investment, relocation leading to economic growth.

Agritech

Food security has become an issue made visible by both the pandemic and now global instability. Longstanding issues of farm productivity are now a government priority with a commitment to grow Philippine agriculture by 2-3% per year. In this environment, streamlining farm to market access, ensuring yield efficiency and finding a viable system for agricultural loans and investment are areas that technology are looking to address. Part of the secret to success will be changes in the regulatory landscape enabling easier access to programs stimulating sector growth.

Edutech

In this fast changing business environment, driven by even faster adoption of new technologies;

Traditional education models are not providing enough qualified candidates. This could in turn starve out a very manpower-hungry economy while ironically reducing employment options for the work force. Retraining for new technology has also put continuing education in critical focus as well. The edutech committee sees industry-driven micro-certification as the most obvious solution to this challenge. Short courses make more sense to new and seasoned professionals both from a time and money perspective. It also works for employers who can “build” the employee they need rather than settle for the employee they get. The key technology will be digital credentialling with industry and policy support.

Wealthtech

As indicated by a surge in cryptocurrency investment, there may be much more investible capitol in the Philippines than is commonly assumed. However the investment sophistication of most Filipinos is still dangerously low; leaving a naïve marketplace open to scams and ignoring much safer, rational investments. Admittedly most traditional investment products and services were designed for the wealthy, but there are now opportunities to use technology to tweak these offerings for a much more representative portion of the population. Ultimately these new services will require the support and regulation of our national line agencies. But there is also the possibility of developing proof-of-concept experiments with government oversite introduced to a small and controlled test market.

SME Digitalization and E-commerce

While today’s SME and e-commerce practitioner is heavily dependent on social media and marketplace platforms like Facebook and Lazada, the future of these businesses may be on the blockchain in a decentralized marketplace. While this is still somewhat nascent, emerging technology, decentralized marketplaces tend to be less expensive, create more customer loyalty, and protect the sellers for predatory and capricious practices which change the rules, interrupt businessman destabilize the seller economy.

The whitepapers are only the beginning of the process, the committees will be reconvening to evaluate the findings and suggest next steps. Action is coming, stay tuned!

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