South Korea - The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) successfully participated in the Knowledge Sharing Program on the Interim Reporting and Policy Practitioners’ Seminar from June 26 to July 1, 2022, in Seoul and Daejeon, South Korea.

The Commission, through the International Affairs Office (IAO) Director, Atty. Melisa Jane B. Comafay was joined by distinguished officers from the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA) officials, Intellectual Property Office (IPOPHL) officials, local consultants, and selected Philippines delegates, all gathered to observe and adapt to the sharing of the Republic of Korea’s development experience through intellectual property and endeavors to support the Philippines’ human resources development (HRD) to achieve sustainable economic growth.

As the main objective of the event is to present the preliminary research results to the participants, several issues that were raised concerning the PRC were: what role will the PRC play in the regulation of IP Professionals in the Philippines; and how the PRC can provide or assist in the development of human resource development of IP Professionals in the Philippines.

PRC, on being a member of the National Coordination Committee under the Philippine Qualification Framework (PQF) Act, Dr. Kyu-Nyo Lee of KIPA provided that PQF can ultimately catalyze change towards a more effective HRD system in the Philippines. He further emphasized the need to strengthen links between education, particularly higher education and Technical-Vocational Education and Training (TVET), and between education, TVET, and the labor market. Meanwhile, a third reporter, Atty. Moonyang Ra, suggested that a National Competency Standards (NCS)-based education system centered on job competency be implemented in the university to improve the curriculum for the professional HR required in the industry. This idea, in hindsight, paved the way for Director General Rowel Barba of IPOPHL to realize its possibility to be an area for improving the Continuing Professional Development of Filipino professionals, mentioning Accredited Professional Organizations (APOs) of the Engineering profession who are currently in collaboration with IPOPHL on IP training.

Therefore, the role of the PRC lies either in providing qualifications regulation or in developing training institutions, wherein PRC shall take the lead under the International Alignment. As IPOPHL recognizes the need to involve the PRC in integrating IP in the Human Capital Strategy of the Philippines, part of the moving forward is to set exploratory talks aligning these objectives within the different agency mandates.

The Final Reporting Workshop was held at the New World Hotel, Makati, Philippines last 30 August 2022, which was also attended by PRC.