Philippine creative industry formed to boost design skills

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) together with the Department of Tourism will be working hand in hand to develop a creative industry in the Philippines.

DTI undersecretary Zoraida Amalia C. Alonzo said that DTI would need the help of the DOT in developing this kind of industry, so that design capabilities and creativities of Filipinos will also be well promoted in the world.

"The DTI will be working closely with the DOT in developing the Philippine creative industry," Alonzo said during her recent visit to Cebu.

She said that Cebu has a lot of creative people that needs to be supported for further skills development.

"Cebu has majority of the creative people in the Philippines. This is a highly-priced commodity, this should be nurtured and developed very well," she stressed.

In tourism, the Philippines could also be positioned as a world-class destination through creativity, thus DOT will be tapped in this particular program of DTI.

Cebu's fashion jewelry, furniture, gifts-toys-and-houseware sectors can sustain their niche in the world market, if the creative people gets ample support from the government and from their respective sectors.

However, she did not elaborate what specific programs are being formulated and will be introduced to help develop the creative industry.

Already, she said DTI had been helping potential sectors largely banking on design as their niche in the world market, through bringing some designers to world fairs to update themselves on the trends in designs.

On the other hand, furniture makers in Cebu, which are solely banking on the original and world-sought designs from creative Cebuanos, are complaining of the exodus of designers to other countries especially in China.

Brain drain of designers is now being felt by the furniture sector, as well as in fashion accessories or jewelry sectors.

In a separate interview with Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF) president Michael Basubas, he said that pirating designers from China-based companies is now one of the problems faced by the struggling furniture sector.

There is now a growing number of designers jumping-off to China, and other countries because of attractive pay that Philippine-based companies could not afford to counter, Basubas said.

In furniture making, over 500 designers, including technical people are now based in China servicing multinational companies, bringing down Philippine-made export commodities, like furniture, in terms competition.

Cebu's furniture products is largely banking on its intricate, innovative and unique designs, if designers left here, will not be taken care of, slowly the design edge of the Philippine export will lose its name, Basubas said.

Alonzo also did not mention the timeframe to aggressively implement the extensive campaign on developing the "creative industry", saying "it has been running now."

Earlier, Cebu manufacturers and exporters of fashion accessories are earlier told to improve its designing capability, as Thailand, and other countries which manufacture the same products are learning to produce good designs in fashion accessories.

Economist Bernardo Villegas had been warning the fashion accessory manufacturers and exporters to invest heavily on designs, as other countries are already eating a large market share of this particular export segment worldwide.