Engineering and ICT Research Center (EICT-RC)
ENGINEERING AND ICT RESEARCH CENTER (EICT-RC)
Industrial competitiveness refers to the capacity of a country to increase its presence in international and domestic markets whilst developing industrial sectors and activities with higher value added and technological content. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Competitive Industrial Performance (CIP) index benchmarks countries capacity to produce and manufacture goods competitively, and the level technology deepening and upgrading. The local manufacturing sector is dominated by low-technology resource-based industries, such as those involved in the food, beverages, textiles and leather sectors. There is need to build technological and innovation capabilities of manufacturing industries to make competitive products as well as develop and transfer technologies for raising local value-added content. This can be achieved by hastening investments in engineering capabilities. Countries that rank high in CIP index have invested heavily in high-technology manufacturing, which largely encompasses frontier technologies such as additive (3D printing) manufacturing, advanced digital production, smart production systems, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet-of-Things (IoT) and robotics. To capture gains associated with the frontier technologies the country must have skilled human capital and appropriate research and development infrastructure to support manufacturing industries. EICT-RC provides engineering solutions by undertaking quality industrial research in mechanical, electrical, electronics, mechatronics and ICT.