Elevating innovation and entrepreneurship in the Philippines

I've recently been in touch with Ayala Foundation (AFI) to find out what their initiatives are in the realm of technology innovation and entrepreneurship. I am a staunch believer of the creativity and technological capability of Filipinos and hope that we can harness that somehow on a much wider-scale level to spawn new products and businesses that can compete in the global marketplace. AFI appears to be making some headway in this area, but only a stronger collaboration between the government, private sector & academe would be able to make a goal/endeavor such as this achievable and truly successful.

Here are some notes from my talks with Bill Luz & Art Tan on what AFI is working on:

• Promotes tech innovation and entrepreneurship through their Technology Business Incubator project-- they currently run an incubator at UP with 9 locators and are trying to expand this project by finding more space or providing services to tech start-ups
• Supports a tech business plan competition known as the Philippine Emerging StartUps Open (PESO) which some Mass Institue of Technology alums started
• Organizes tech forums (Kape at Teknolohiya in UP and the Innovation Forum in Makati)
• Runs several websites dedicated to promoting technology in the Philippines
• Provides internet labs in Philippine public high schools through another project known as GILAS-- Of the 5800+ high schools across the country (w/c keep growing), AFI has helped set up internet labs in 1,200 of them thus far. [I am very familiar with this project and have some related fundraisers going on here in the DC area. I believe that if done right: access to the internet --> knowledge & information + access to global resources --> better opportunities & competition --> need for innovation --> new ventures or elevation of existing businesses --> new jobs & higher standard of living --> economic advancement]

For those of you who wish to get involved in anyone of these projects, the initiative's website is here. Or I can introduce you directly to AFI's constituents as well. I would also love to hear your thoughts on these offline.