DAVAO CITY — A survey conducted by the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) revealed less market innovation of industries in Davao compared to other types of innovation.

At the Innovation Forum held at the Pinnacle Hotel here, USEP's Gilbert Importante along with the other authors of the survey attributed this situation to the size of the market of the industries and regarded it as less important compared to other innovation initiatives within the establishment.

ICT Davao President Bert Barriga clarified that enterprises in Davao are willing to open their services to the world; however, they just don't have the access on how to expand their markets.

"They are not aware that they could avail of consultants. Instead, they spend more on machineries and infrastructure for innovation." he said.

Barriga's observation coincided with the survey result showing that small and micro enterprises in Davao did not source market information from consultants and other commercial laboratories. It can be attributed to the high cost of sourcing this information through sources.

It also showed that enterprises are not sourcing out from the government institutions and academe, which implies that research and development outputs of universities and government research institutions are not aligned with current industry trends.

For large enterprises in the national level, improving quality of goods and services was seen as the most important driver for innovation activities. However, industries in Davao consider the factors in reduction of labor cost, material inputs energy output and environmental effects as least among its priorities.

Thus, it was recommended that innovation researches and innovation technologies be provided to these industry groups to become competitive and promote innovations.

The survey also pushes for the establishment of an economic processing zone in Davao or enhance existing processing zones in the region as this would likely increase innovation among enterprises and improve economic activity. (PIA/Mai Gevera)