Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua urged the National Innovation Council (NIC) to work together to promote innovative solutions and raise the country’s overall productivity on Friday during the first council meeting.

“Higher productivity will allow us to graduate from our current low middle-income country status to upper-middle income country status by the end of 2022, and high-income country status in one generation. For the Filipino people, it means living without poverty and having equal opportunities to succeed,” said Chua.

Recent economic indicators show that the Philippines is on track to achieving an upper-middle income country status in 2022. According to Chua, sustaining this level of development rests on the country’s ability to innovate in an increasingly competitive and resource-constrained world.

To this end, the NIC is now developing the National Innovation Agenda and Strategy Document (NIASD) to be launched within the year. This document will establish the country’s 10-year vision, long-term goals, agenda, and strategies related to innovation.

The NIASD will be formulated through a series of co-creation workshops with the NIC member agencies and other stakeholders, and be guided by the Philippine Innovation Toolkit.

To enhance the innovation capacity of the Philippines, all government agencies are mandated by RA 11293 to comply with the NIASD and pursue its attainment through a collective national effort.

“A strong economic foundation built on inclusive innovation will be crucial in raising overall productivity and bringing prosperity to the people. The Philippine Innovation Act provides us with a window of opportunity to achieve this objective by creating a culture of futures planning and funding innovative solutions,” Chua said.

The NIC is tasked to develop the country’s strategic vision, goals, and strategies for innovation. It has 25 members, namely the President of the Philippines as the chairperson; the Secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) as the vice-chairperson; heads of 16 other member agencies; and seven executive members from the private sector.

As vice-chairperson of the NIC, Chua was authorized by the President to chair the first council meeting. NEDA Public Affairs