Government to focus on creative SMEs

The government announced it will focus on creative industries for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to help the country deal with the current global financial crunch.

The Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), the export promotions arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), announced it will roll out its international promotion activities for the country’s SMEs in the creative industry.

“We recognize the strategic importance of helping the small players in the creative industry sector in creating more jobs for the country,” CITEM officer in charge Ma. Lourdes D. Mediran said.

Creative industry is defined as “those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skills, and talent and which have a potential for wealth creation and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.”

The sector includes individuals and organizations involved in fashion design, audio-visual design, space design, industrial design, multimedia, handicrafts, writing-based industries, culinary arts, and performing arts.

Aside from this, CITEM also would like to increase awareness on the importance of packaging innovation in marketing Philippine food products through the first International Food Exhibition Philippines Packaging Competition for students of design.

“The Philippine creative industry cuts across all creative, high-value, intellectual property industries such as ICT and design to name a few,” Mediran noted. For her, the new CITEM initiatives form part of the worldwide trend where companies, regions, and nations are trying to move up the IP value chain.

For the past years, the country’s creative sub-sectors such as animation, fashion design, and film have been getting international recognition.

CITEM said Filipino animators were sought after by entertainment giants like Disney for content in their cartoons such as Scooby-Doo, X-Men, Transformers, Jetsons, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.

Filipino IT engineers have also introduced popular value-added services in mobile phones through ring tones, wallpapers, logos, and movie ticket reservations.

The recent Creative Economy Report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) mentioned the Philippines as one of the top-10 exporters of visual arts among developing countries in 2005. The country exported some $107 million worth of goods that represented 0.48 percent of the total market share.

Same report also showed that in 2005, creative industries in the Philippines contributed some 4.92 percent to the gross domestic product and accounted for 11.10 percent of the country’s labor force for the same period.