CORTES, Bohol (PIA) –With the brighter prospects for agribusiness, manufacturing and service sectors surfacing in Bohol, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) finds local government units (LGU) in an opportunity for attracting technology-based investments through science and technology (S&T) based development plans.
Through Innovations, Science and Technology for Accelerating Regional Development (ISTART), LGUS who could put up S&T-based development plans especially for focused acceleration of agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors can get technical assistance to strengthen their plans and access DOST technologies, explains DOST Bohol Provincial science and Technology Center Director Vina Antopina, at the Kapihan sa PIA.
Put up as a DOT response to help hasten the balanced development or regions and possibly attract back their migrating population to decongest the metropolis, ISTART would look at improving the quality of life in the regions outside Manila, by using S&T innovations.
“Our next priority is to go back to the basic element in the society and strengthen empowerment in the local development councils,” Antopina shared during the radio forum and streamed live over PIA Bohol facebook and youtube channels.
People have always seen S&T as academic, but then, the world revolves around S&T and all the problems, challenges, and issues have science and technology solutions, which local councils have not yet integrated or listed as part of the solutions.
To this, the DOST said it is crucial for LGUS to integrate S&T in their development plans, because somehow, there is already a technology and innovation ready to respond to their problems, the Bohol PSTC head pointed out.
Incorporating these S&T in their plans however is a tricky step, without an S&T champion in the local development councils.
For this, DOST Bohol proposes to local councils to set up a Committee on Science and Technology, which is not just as an afterthought inserted in the Committee on Education.
If they can do that, then we can have a focal person in the development council whom we can help to let the council see and access a menu of S&T solutions to their problems, or we can use S&T to back their proposals, Antopina added.
Plans to be truly effective and implementable without wasting precious resource need the demographics, like for senior citizens, the DOST illustrated.
Using an innovation on the Barangay Electronic Data System, the DOST can allow planners to access primary data showing senior citizens profiles and the services they would need, for a more inclusive resource use.
For health and nutrition for example, the DOST can link LGUS with its developed technologies like provision of healthier food options like the access of local stores to the complete food nutrient rich nutribun, for consumption by kids in the barangays, she4 added.
Here, with a S&T committee or focal person in the planning and development council, it assures the council that S&T innovations are always available for them, through the focal person.
What is in it for LGUS?
After LGUS can exhaust all ST innovations, these can become a system for the LGUS to involve science and technology in the community, into its becoming a smart community with people using technology available in their areas.
This, DOST hopes, can start a magnet for ST based investors, who would be confident in the barangay’s science-backed systems.
For more information about how LGUS can access ISTART, Antopina asks officials to visit the DOST, for details. (rahc/PIA_7/Bohol)
