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Erle Frayne Argonza
Gracious day to everyone!
From China comes a news item highlighting the gap between technology innovations and the business community. The observation is that the gap is a yawning one. This gap has been observed among other Asians that proceeded with the industrialization development track couples of decades back.
The new is contained below.
[Writ 07 October 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to SciDev database news.]
Chinese innovation ‘too isolated’
Jia Hepeng
23 September 2008 | EN | 中文
Flickr/Pere Tubert Juhe
[ZHENGZHOU AND BEIJING] For China to become a world leader in innovation, it should address regional differences and promote corporate input, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The report, released this month (11 September), acknowledges that with spending on research and development (R&D) matching that of Germany, China is already a global player in science and technology.
But the country lags in innovation capability and performance compared to OECD countries with a similar level of R&D investment, although China ranked second in global publications levels in 2006.
According to the report, China’s innovation system is not fully developed and inadequately integrated. It describes the system as an “archipelago”, a large number of “innovative islands” with insufficient links between them.
Current regional patterns of R&D and innovation create too great a physical separation between knowledge producers and potential users, the authors say.
In addition, although foreign investment in China has increasingly contributed to innovation, the domestic business sector has been slow to make productive use of accumulated R&D investment, human resources for science and technology, and related infrastructure, the report indicates.
The Chinese government is looking to address this. For example, a recent study found that of 22 Chinese biotechnology firms investigated, all had received government funding (see Regulations ‘hinder’ China biotech investment).
But besides funding companies directly, “it is important for China to improve the framework conditions for innovation, which will contribute to building an innovation culture and provide the conditions and incentives for firms to shift their attention to innovation,” Gang Zhang of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry and one of the report’s authors, told SciDev.Net.
And Feng Jun, president of Beijing Huaqi Information Digital Technology, a leading Chinese technology company, says the government has distributed its funding too evenly among companies, instead of focusing on a few to gain key breakthroughs.
Link to the executive summary of OECD report
Erle Frayne Argonza
Good morning from Manila!
It seems the excitement in Iraq’s S&T is moving to higher pitches, despite the noise and flames of the ensuing war there. The policy environment is getting to be more definitive, and a new state institution is being installed to address S&T research and development needs of the country.
See the exciting news below.
[Writ 06 October 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to SciDev database news.]
New authority and law to push Iraqi research
Wagdy Sawahel
26 September 2008 | EN | 中文
Flickr/rxwarren
Iraq is to establish a scientific research authority (SRA) to promote science and technology research and improve science policy, and will consider a new law offering scientists significant financial benefits.
The SRA was announced by Abd Dhiab al-Ajili, the Iraqi minister for higher education and scientific research last week (15 September).
It will function independently from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) and have a separate, as yet undisclosed, budget. Its exact start date has yet to be decided.
The authority will oversee all of the science and technology centres associated with universities and have the capacity to fund research directly. It will also prepare science policy reports reviewing subjects including best practice for funding research, measuring the quality of scientific research, and methods for knowledge dissemination.
The SRA will suggest educational programmes and provide analysis for the MHESR on Iraq’s needs to build its scientific and technological capacity. It will also provide advice to the MHESR and university science centres on topics such as ethics, socioeconomic impact, health and environmental concerns and intellectual property rights.
The Iraqi government is also set to consider a new law aiming to persuade scientists, innovators and engineers abroad to return to the country.
Samir Ibrahim Abbas, deputy director-general at the Iraq Ministry of Science and Technology and a member of the ministerial committee preparing the law, says a draft will be ready within six weeks and submitted to the government.
The proposed law also offers incentives to top scientists and innovators working in Iraq.
These include increased salaries — currently on average less than US$1,000 a month — of 300–350 per cent making it equivalent to the Iraqi deputy ministerial salary level. Other benefits include exemption from the mandatory retirement age of 63 years and preferential treatment and reduced prices when buying land for housing.
Abbas says the law will reward different levels of scientists and innovators depending on their scientific achievements.
Scientists would be expected to apply for the benefits, overseen by a central body comprising representatives from scientific committees in different scientific and technological fields who would be responsible for the evaluation and assessment of candidates.
Erle Frayne Argonza
The United States seems to have come a long way in strengthening the institutional aspects of development concerns, by way of voucher systems. I still remember the voucher system instituted as intervention scheme to salve education ailments early this decade, and I hope evaluation studies were conducted to measure the levels of success of that intervention from state to state.
Here comes another voucher system by the United States, this version being applicable to tropical diseases. Accordingly, it is a boost for tropical disease drugs, which is welcome news for many developing countries. Among diseases that are eligible to the system are sleeping illness, leprosy and malaria.
The news is contained in an article below.
[28 August 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to SciDev database news.]
US voucher system to boost tropical disease drugs
Source: Intellectual Property Watch
14 August 2008 | EN | FR
A patient with malaria, one of the tropical diseases eligible for the scheme
Flickr/.ash
The United States is set to launch a prize system to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for tropical diseases.
Sixteen tropical diseases, including sleeping sickness, leprosy and malaria are listed as eligible for the scheme.
Under the system, companies producing a drug or vaccine for a tropical disease can apply for a Priority Review voucher, which allows them a shorter approval time for another drug at a later date.
The shorter approval process would take approximately six months instead of ten, meaning that drugs could hit the market sooner and potentially be more lucrative. Thus, the vouchers are estimated to be worth around US$300 million.
Companies can also take advantage of the Orphan Drugs Act, under which drug developers receive tax credits, a waiver of the US Food and Drug Administration’s user fee and seven years market exclusivity on drugs that have no economic viability.
The first vouchers can be legally issued from 27 September 2008.
But the wording of the voucher law needs tightening up, say commentators, and some aspects — such as a rule stating that drugs can’t contain active ingredients that have been approved in another application — could restrict eligibility.
The Food and Drug Administration is currently drawing up guidelines on how the law will work in practice.
PACQUIAO BEATS DIAZ, RP BOXING SUPREMACY ASSURED
Erle Frayne Argonza
Good afternoon!
Elation and euphoria are back in the Philippines and across the borders today as Manny Paquiao beat David Diaz in the lightweight division of world boxing. Flat on his face in the ring’s floor, Diaz looked like a whacked baby in comatose, ready to face the surgeon for some serious eye and facial injuries sustained during nine (9) rounds of unrelenting offensive from the unbeatable Manny.
From the first through the ninth rounds, Manny Paquiao exhibited superior punching and maneuvering ability and was the clear upper hand points-wise for all of those rounds. His superiority in both speed and power, added to his outstanding maneuvering skill, made him throw every kind of punch on the pathetic Diaz, candidate of America, with ease.
On the 5th round of the game, my compassion as a yogi-mystic began to surface while watching with eyes glued 105% on the TV screen. My compassion was, of course, addressed towards Diaz, whose face already sustained bleeding as early as the 2nd round, and I wished that Manny would knock him out on the 6th round as a matter of compassion. It would be cruel for any professional boxer to go on throwing deadly punches on an enemy who is almost down, and should, in my mind, work out to knock out the opponent early enough so as to minimize heavy injuries that could lead to death at the worse.
That knock out came finally on the 9th round, which made me felt a feeling of relief, and so I exclaimed my jubilation for my compatriot’s victory and compassion. Of course, I thanked God that Diaz is still intact, and was able to stand on his feet at least, thus assuring no further need for surgical operations or whatever. It was just a fight, may this fighter practice more. But like the rest of my kabayans, Manny has warmed our hearts so much again, and on this day he’s the one hero who had united the nation for at least some couples of hours.
Manny is now assured of his Hall of Fame status, with his gaining of a 4th title victory, notwithstanding the awarding to him of the most prestigious World Boxing Council or WBC belt at the 135-lb category. He is also impeccably Asia’s best, as it was the first time that an Asian won four (4) world titles in his career, thus ensuring Asia it’s place in the globe as a continent worth watching for.
Finally, and this is what has given us great pride, Manny’s latest victory has ensured Philippine supremacy in boxing from here on till maybe at least ten (10) years to come. Manny was not just representing himself, but rather he’s the chief icon among couples of others in the middle down to lower weight categories. The coterie of top-gun boxers have made Manila the team to beat, and had swept off Mexico and Thailand as the previous holders of this sports tiara.
For all boxers as a whole, Manny Paquiao’s latest victory had added prestige to the lower boxing weight divisions, and the spotlight of boxing had all the more been focused on these divisions away from the middle-to-heavy weights. He joins the coterie of titans such as De La Joya who earlier gave so much prestige to the lower-to-middle divisions.
Mabuhay si Manny Paquiao! Mabuhay ang mga Filipino boxers! Mabuhay ang Inang Bayan!
[Writ 29 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
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