HITS to reduce poverty incidence
MANILA, Phillippines — The government is undertaking 12 High Impact Technology Solutions (HITS), an industrialization path, aimed at helping reduce the 36 percent poverty level in the metropolis and 16 percent in rural areas.
HITS, an initial 12-point flagship inter-government program initiated by the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), has received its needed boost with a policy support of President Benigno S. Aquino III who led early this week the National and Technology Week (NSTW).
“Through the use of technology, we will have a direction by which we can give hope of livelihood to the countryside,” said Aquino at the NSTW-HITS opening.
The idea of HITS is to introduce Filipino-made products that will be at par or even better in quality than those in the market and at a globally competitive cost.
“The only way to confront poverty is through countryside development. We’re thinking of how we can make our industries more competitive through technology. We’re developing corporate technologies that will create value in inputs in the countryside,” said DoST Secretary Mario G. Montejo, who admitted to being surprised by the high poverty incidence level in urban areas much more than in rural areas.
A plain agricultural processing technology could produce high value-added product, such as “kalamansi concentrate”, which has longer shelf life of at least six months compared to just a week for the unprocessed form. The country imports kalamansi concentrates.
“If we localize this kalamansi concentrate, it will be just one-fourth of the cost,” he said.
HITS will also support a need of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI) for the supply of electronic parts and peripherals that have a huge $30 billion value.
“SEIPI is opening up their requirements to local suppliers. We’re looking at a huge number. It’s a win-win program. Even just the plating requirements of SEIPI are being sent to Singapore and shipped back here. But that’s relatively simple. We can do this even at a lower cost,” Montejo said.
Montejo himself, a University of the Philippines-educated licensed mechanical engineer, is a technology entrepreneur who practiced his craft in the United States and holds many patents for his inventions.
Among the top products to be produced soon in the country are nanoclay-made cutleries.
“We have nanoclays in Bicol which if you mix with 93 percent cornstarch can produce spoons, and it’s 100 percent biodegradable. If you mix nanoclay with rubber, you can enhance its mechanical property to produce many products such as bumper, interior, and exterior panes,” he said.
An immediate educational product now being piloted in 100 public elementary schools is an electronic learning module developed by an inter-agency group participated by the Department of Education and led by Ateneo’s Dr. Queena Lee Chua, an Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service awardee.
“Information Communication Technology was just assigned to us, and we’re very excited of a transformational group working on this,” Montejo said.
The following are other HITS program: Local windmills for power generation, ship-to-shore and rubber tier gantry cranes, microorganisms for treatment of wastewater, development of a treatment for Filipinos through diagnostic tests, low-cost PC tablets, expansion of the national telehealth program, a monorail system, nanotechnology, low-cost infant feed, massive distribution of brown rice and, low-cost mosquito trap.
