Development boost eyed via ‘strategic philanthropy’

AT A TIME when the world’s top billionaires have begun to seriously invest in charity, a new form of philanthropy is being cooked up as a tool to uplift the Philippines’ quality of education and create a domestic high-value technology industry.

Leveraging on the buzzword “strategic philanthropy,” a group of private firms and wealthy individuals, under the tutelage of the Ayala Foundation, wants to move away from the traditional dole-out way of giving back: this time, philanthropy is envisioned be sustainable and a means to drive economic development.

A gathering in the United States, to be held on September 25 in San Jose, California and called the Philippine Development Forum, will be used to jumpstart the project. It aims to bring together the academe, the government and the private sector in crafting strategic plans for the country.

President Benigno C. Aquino III is one of the confirmed high-profile guests. Some of the speakers from the private sector include Orlando B. Vea, the chief wireless advisor of Smart Communications Inc. and among others a member of the board of BusinessWorld Publishing Corp., and Fernando Zobel de Ayala of Ayala Corp.

“The forum is not the end in itself. It is actually meant to kick off this whole rethinking of what the country needs to really catapult us into developed country status,” said Victoria P. Garchitorena, president of Ayala Foundation, Inc., in a video conference yesterday.

The campaign has chosen to focus on technology and education as catalysts for economic development. The Philippines ranks poorly in these areas, one of the reasons behind its being 87th among 133 countries in the latest Global Competitiveness Report.

“Economic studies have shown that the success of a country is basically driven by innovation and technology,” said Denny S. Roja in the same video conference. The treasurer of the Philippine Development Foundation USA (PhilDev), the newly formed independent institution that is the product of a “reengineered” Ayala Foundation USA, Mr. Roja is also the managing partner and general counsel of Acuity Ventures, a venture capital fund based in Palo Alto, California.

Ms. Garchitorena said the ambitious program would try to examine ways to improve the lives of Filipinos, “starting from the time they enter school through improving the science and math curricula, all the way to creating companies.”

According to the forum program, it is envisioned to be a “meeting of the minds” to address the needs and potential of the Philippines’ scientific and technological resources, including opportunities in science and engineering education and in technology-based industries.

One of the areas the program should address is issue of brain drain, said Francisco “Paco” Sandejas, managing director of venture capital firm NarraVC and one of the speakers in the forum.

“If you have a masters degree in computer science, the natural path is to go abroad. But if we have really interesting companies in the Philippines then there’s more to do here,” Mr. Sandejas said in an interview.

Martin T. Lichauco, another venture capitalist, added that the country should also work on changing the mind-set when it comes to developing its technology industry. “We need to change the mentality of entrepreneurs here. We need to get out of the cheap labor shell mentality herein we say we are competitive because we are cheap.”

Mr. Roja said a specific action plan would be drafted and submitted to Mr. Aquino and his Cabinet “for consideration.”

“The hard part begins after the forum,” Ms. Garchitorena added.

She said PhilDev might initiate the creation of a much larger consortium that would be multisectoral.

“We might need to do a five-year, ten-year development plan something like what NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) does for the country,” she said, referring to the socioeconomic planning arm of the government.