Philippine Canadian Inquirer (National)
Promotion budget for creative industries eyed
MANILA — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is pushing for promotion of the economic potential of the country’s creative industries in Southeast Asia to boost exports in services, as the Philippines aims to be the leading creative economy in the region in the next decade.
DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said industry players have mapped out a creative economy roadmap that intends to provide necessary support to creative services, including promotion budget.
Lopez said the country has stronger creative services, particularly graphic design, game development, and software development which have been identified as “service winners.”
“Please note without any support, the creative economy has basically accounted for about one-half in value relative to the merchandise goods. We can imagine the potential. That means that definitely, the creative services is a natural competitive advantage of the Philippines because of the catapult of talents that we have in terms of creativity, design and other high-value adding services,” he said during the National Export Congress Friday.
“More so, pag sinu-support natin (if we provide support to the sector)... Even increasing budget so that we can promote them better and much stronger than before because before, halos walang (they had almost no) promotion budget,” Lopez later told reporters.
The country also wants to make its creative talent pool competitive and attractive in the international markets, he said.
To achieve this goal, Lopez said the creative economy roadmap has outlined six priority initiatives and five priority subsectors wherein the public and private sectors need to work together to accelerate the growth of the sector.
The priority sectors are advertising, film, animation, game development, and graphic arts, and design, he added. ■