This year, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) wil focus more on improving its research and development (R&D) facilities and infrastructures not only in the metropolis but also in the regions.

Science and Technology Secretary Estrella Alabastro yesterday said that this year, the agency is eyeing the upgrade of facilities under its R&D institutes as well as rehabilitate the facilities of its regional laboratories.

Upgrading of R&D facilities, she said, is aimed to "provide better service to the people."

"We should never stop improving (our) facilities because every now and then, maraming pumapasok n new technologies," she said.

Alabastro said the rehabilitation of regional laboratory facilities is "due to the volume of demand of analytical services in the regions," adding that it would save small and medium entrepreneurs from wasting time and expenses since some of them even travel to the metropolis fro product testing.

The science chief also disclosed that for this year, the agency will continue to give emphasis on transferring technologies to the regions.

This, she said, would be done to give small and medium enterprises "the appropriate technology to improve with their operations."

With this, she said, an additional P100 million budget is "pegged" for the continuous operation of one of her agency's flagships programs, the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP), which "consolidates the technological interventions to SMEs all over the country" through the implementation of the DOST regional offices.

A program which started in the middle of 2002, Alabastro said that SETUP is geared towards improved product quality and marketability of SMEs.

Alabastro said that once the 2006 budget would be approved, which is expected to increase the agency's budget by P300 million, the agency will be allotting P120 million for the completion of the infrastructure of Philippine Science High School )PSHS) regional campuses.

PSHS has satellite campuses in Davao, Iloilo, Tacloban, Camarines Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, Lanao and Vigan after it expanded into a system in the year 2000.