VICE-PRESIDENT Sara Duterte-Carpio on Tuesday urged the government to help the business community pursue innovations amid the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

“Innovation has profoundly transformed the business environment and raised the competitiveness of every industry, here and overseas,” she said at a business conference organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“Embracing new innovation is inevitable, or we will be left behind in the ground, as we are compared to our neighbors and compared to the rest of the world,” she added.

The Philippines ranked 56^th out of 132 economies in the recent global innovation index.

It also ranked the lowest in the region after placing 67^th out of 83 countries in its debut in The Global AI Index 2024 by Tortoise Media — which assesses countries based on their AI implementation, innovation, and investment — with an overall score of 5.89 out of 100.

Despite the anxiety it has caused globally, AI has also caused excitement “and more and more people are drawn to the opportunity it offers,” said Ms. Duterte, a former Education chief under the Marcos administration.

“The government and the private sector can collaborate to create innovation centers and foster an environment that encourages risk-taking and experimentation,” she said.

Ms. Duterte said the country should aim to become a powerhouse of innovations and go beyond its target of becoming an upper-middle income economy.

“With the ingenuity and creativity of Filipinos, I believe we can do more to create better products and systems that will bring profit and move our industries forward,” she said.

“We just need to do that dream. We don’t want to be middle-income,” she added. “We want to be a superpower, and we can.”

Ms. Duterte has refused to participate in House hearings amid questions on her office’s previous and proposed budgets. Critics and academics earlier said her past and existing confidential funds should have been used for meaningful programs, including workforce development.

She said employees also benefit from innovations, like AI as it simplifies tasks, automates repetitive work, and facilitates collaboration and transparency within an organization; but while that is the case, the vice-president raised the need to reskill and upskill workers amid concerns about job displacement.

“Because the technological revolution has also led to job displacement in certain sectors, we should consider the urgency of reskilling and upskilling our workers and equip them with the new skills in a technologically evolving workplace,” she added.

“By investing in workforce development, we can harness the power of technology to create a more effective and productive future while ensuring that employees are equipped to thrive in this new landscape.” — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza

THE Philippine government is eyeing incentives for businessmen who will invest in the local manufacturing of electric-powered vehicles, the presidential palace said, as investors await policy statements from the government.

In a statement, the palace said Mr. Marcos cited the need for an incentive policy that will cover potential investors in the e-mobility industry during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The incentives will prioritize local players, “but we’ll take anybody who’s interested,” the President told officials from the Department of Science and Technology.

“They will have to undertake the production design to scale it up to a level to actually make a difference to the market,” he added.

At the meeting, DOST Secretary Renato Solidum, Jr. said potential investors and players including manufacturers and fabricators were waiting for a policy statement from the government.

The palace said the Department of Trade and Industry has been creating a strategic roadmap under the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act to come up with possible incentives.

It said the government was also working with Philippine company ToJo Motors Corp. “to figure out the necessary policies to make it conducive for locally manufactured e-vehicles, specifically e-trikes and e-jeepneys, to operate in the Philippines.”

Mr. Solidum told the President that e-trikes will soon be mass produced in Isabela, noting many customers are waiting for electric trikes in the market.

“Officials in General Santos City, along with tricycle operators, are also interested,” the palace said, citing the DOST chief. “Local agri-machinery manufacturers could help speed up trike production.”

The DOST has been implementing an e-mobility program map, which includes the conversion of conventional tricycles and buses into electric ones.

The agency has already developed a hybrid electric train and an electric boat.

There were 25,196 registered e-vehicles (EVs) and 705 EV charging stations (EVCS) in the country as of Oct. 18, with 92 accredited EVCS providers, which have already generated 10,407 new jobs and about P1.99 billion in investments, according to the palace. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza