Angara: RP a productivity laggard

Senator Edgardo J. Angara expressed alarm over the laggard status of the Philippines in ASEAN productivity and the corollary fact that the ASEAN itself is way behind the rest of Asia and the developed world in productivity.

"This is a double-black eye. The Philippines is a productivity laggard compared with the other countries in the ASEAN. The ASEAN, in turn, is a laggard compared with the rest of Asia and the developed world," lamented Angara.

Labor productivity in Southeast Asia has become stagnant compared to the rest of Asia and lags far behind that of the developed world, the International Labor Organization said in a new report published Sunday.

The report titled Key Indicators of the Labor Market found that productivity - measured in output per employed person - in Southeast Asia had an average annual increase of only 1.6 percent between 1996 and 2006.

It showed that Singapore is the most productive country in the ASEAN with its $ 47,975 of value added by each person employed followed by Malaysia's $ 22,112, Thailand's $ 13,915, Indonesia's $ 9,022 and the Philippines' $ 7,271.

The United States still leads the world in labor productivity with its $ 63,885 per worker, according to the report that showed the productivity gap between the US and most other developed economies continued to widen.

America's increased productivity has benefited immensely from its ICT (Information and communication technologies) revolution, with the high level of competition in the country, with the extension of trade and investment abroad, said Jose Manuel Salazar, the ILO's head of employment.

"The national leadership should get the clear message that we should wake up from our torpor and stupor. Only world-class competitiveness, which can be attained by building a pool of world class workers grounded in engineering, science and ICT technologies , can provide the quantum push to labor productivity," said Angara., who chairs the senate committee on science and techology.

Angara added that "the ILO report only confirms what I have been saying that emergency action must be taken on Philippine competitiveness in science and technology education."

During the 13th Congress, Senator Angara together with then Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr. called for the creation of the Congressional Commission on Science and Technology (COMSTE) to review and assess the state of science, technology and engineering education as well as research and development in public and private schools in the country.

The COMSTE will then submit its findings and come out with a master plan.

Over the last five years, Philippine competitiveness in science and technology has deteriorated. The Philippines is the 77th most competitive out of 117 countries covered by the 2006 Global Technology Information Report by the Lausanne-based World Economic Forum.

This is a sharp drop from its 48th place in the 2001 GTI Report.

"We need to improve our competitiveness in science and technology to combat poverty and compete effectively in the global economy," Senator Angara urges.