Sinulog spells business for local entrepreneurs
More than an annual festival and a religious event, the Sinulog Festival also means business for the local entrepeneurs.
Today, the Department of Trade and Industry is opening the annual Sinulog trade fair in SM City Cebu.
DTI provincial director Maria Elena Arbon said at least 62 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from Cebu and other provinces in the country are joining this year's trade fair.
"We have around 62 MSMEs engaged in fashion accessories, gifts and housewares, processed food and furnishings," Arbon told The FREEMAN.
The number of exhibitors this year is lesser compared to last year’s 80 due to space limitation in the mall, the trade official said.
The provincial director said 43 of the trade fair exhibitors are from Cebu while 19 come from Bohol, Negros Oriental, Palawan, Davao, Zamboanga, Caraga and Iloilo.
She also said the agency has made arrangement for online retailer Lazada to have a booth space in the trade fair to "facilitate the onboarding of our MSMEs into the e-commerce space."
Arbon noted the DTI expects P5-million in sales from this year's trade fair.
The trade event aims to attract both local and foreign visitors who are visiting during the Sinulog Festival to buy the locally made products to be sold at the fair.
Sales are likely seen to drive up because participants have been
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is in the news these days — for good reason. This sweeping new law applies to all companies that collect and process data belonging to European Union (EU) citizens, even if this is done outside of the EU. This includes companies with operations in the EU and/ or a web site or app that collects and processes EU citizen data.
Key areas of the legislation cover privacy rights, data security, data control, and governance. The good news is the law will be pretty much identical in all 28 EU member states, meaning they only have to comply with one standard. However, the bar is set high and wide — forcing most companies to invest considerable resources to becoming compliant.
Failure to comply with GDPR could result in a hefty fine. If a company is found guilty of a breach that compromises an EU citizen’s data, the penalty could be up to 20 million euros or four percent of an enterprise’s worldwide revenue, whichever is larger! Putting that in perspective: a large enterprise could be fined hundreds of millions of euros for a single breach.
In addition, two pain points are conspicuous: a requirement to notify EU authorities within 72 hours of a breach, and another to prove your company’s security approach is state-of-the-art.
It is important to note in this context that the Philippine Data Privacy Act is imposing similar pressure / regulation on local companies!!!
WHAT’S MANDATED BY GDPR
Since all of the GDPR requirements have not been finalized, some organizations have adopted a ‘waitand-see’ approach. Let’s consider the new obligations being introduced by this regulation: strengthened in terms of marketing, skills upgrading, product quality training, etc.
The DTI said the trade fair is also an opportunity for the MSMEs to link with potential buyers, suppliers and producers.
Meanwhile, a Sinulog street trade fair is also annually put up along Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City.
The street fair, organized by the Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI), aims to help local traders from Cebu and other provinces in the countryside to showcase their products and generate income for the foundation.
The participants include those who sell bags, key chains, home decors, personalized items and souvenir shirts.
Other vendors also have delicacies, accessories, wooden products and other native items to offer.
SFI annually organizes the street fair to raise funds for the Sinulog activities.