He stressed that, "it is moving up the value chain that we should underscore when we do our research in health because we must also focus in health products so that one day we will be known as producer of things rather than buyer of things from the international market."
While he agreed with Representative Bondoc's point that there is severe lack of funding in health research and development, Dr. Macaranas assured the audience that there are other sources that can be tapped, including Filipino professionals who have migrated and were part of professional associations.
"One way of attracting these funds would be to partner with our talents abroad who do the actual research," he explained.
Aside from the issue on funding, Dr. Macaranas also underscored the importance of public-private partnerships. "I hope we will be open to such kind of collaboration because this will open us to the doors of more resources."
He summarized his presentation by saying that, "the PNHRS demonstrates the power of collaboration in R&D but it needs to take the extra step in convergence by networking with other subsystems in the entire R&D of the country and work further in building a competitive Philippines."
Dr. Federico Macaranas is the Executive Director of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM)'s Policy Center, and a member of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) and the PNHRS Committee on Structure/Organization Monitoring and Evaluation (SOME).