As the country progresses towards a “more digital and more global, skills-based economy”, Albay 2nd District Representative Joey Sarte Salceda believes that it is high time that the regional and national universities in the country expand as “startup sandboxes”.

Salceda made this call at the first anniversary of the Innovative Startup Act, or RA 11377, which was filed in December 2019.

Taking Silicon Valley as an inspiration, the House Economic Stimulus and Recovery Cluster Co-Chair shared that he eyes in increasing scholarships connected to science and engineering with entrepreneurship and management.

“Silicon Valley began as a community of startups around Stanford University, which has among the world’s first computer programming degrees during that time. If you have good universities with the ecosystem to support new startups, you will be able to create new innovative businesses,” Salceda said.

“There are four elements to that ecosystem: Good university programs with excellent mentoring and application, good access to data, access to capital, and good support infrastructure in the area around the university,” he added.

With the country having “more than enough” aspiring professionals, Salceda highlighted that “bold entrepreneurs” are more in-demand because they can open more jobs for the Filipinos.

“We have to be ambitious. India and China, countries that are similar to us in terms of human development, are already aiming to produce the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates,” he said. “We’re still stuck with trying to make good employees. We have too many people aspiring to be employees, and not enough bold entrepreneurs who will actually create jobs for more employees,” Salceda explained. “

To further support this endeavor, Salceda assured that there will be numerous reforms that will be filed in the coming new year.

“Work in these areas are definitely among my top priorities as economic recovery co-chair in 2021. You can expect a flurry of reforms that we will pass in these areas,” Salceda said.