Cai Ordinario | BusinessMirror | December 10, 2019
The country’s creative industry is expected to drive the growth of services exports, as well as boost the government’s job generation efforts, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said the industry is a high-value adding sector where the country has a natural competitive edge given the rich pool of Filipino talents.
With this, Lopez said, the country aims to become the top Creative Economy in Asean in terms of size and value by 2030.
“We need to look at creative industries that can bring in economic growth. Apart from making our creative talent pool more competitive and attractive in international markets, we are also pushing for more trade and intellectual-property rights activities,” Lopez said.
In line with this, DTI launched the Creative Economy Roadmap that has priority initiatives and subsectors where public and private sectors collaborate to accelerate the economy.
The priority initiatives include policies, industries, clusters, cities, tourism, and education, while priority sectors include advertising, film, animation, game development, and graphic arts and design.
Lopez also vowed government’s support in the digital transformation of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), including exporters, through funding.
“We need to prepare for the wide range implementation of the digital transformation by focusing on innovation and embracing the rigors of digital era,” said Lopez.
In 2018, the export services sector has reached $38.4 million. IT-related services generated $22.666 billion, accounting for 59 percent, and non-IT services of $15.746 billion representing 41 percent.
The IT-related services are composed of telecommunications, computer and information services, other business services and audio-visual services.
Under other business services, which include some creative industry sectors, such as animation, game and software development, garnered 73 percent or $16.448 billion of the total exports of IT-related services.
Earlier, Lopez told reporters that total exports growth could reach 2 percent to 4 percent by the end of the year. This estimate includes both merchandise goods and services exports.
Outbound shipments of merchandise goods could post flat growth or expand by 1 percent while services exports could rise by a single digit.
Initially, he said the government had expected merchandise exports to grow by 2 percent to 4 percent this year. As trade relations between US and China have not improved, Lopez said the figure could be lower.
Goods exports contracted by an annualized rate of 1.8 percent in 2018. The tiff between two biggest economies in the globe started after the US announced in July 2018 that it will slap tariffs on hundreds of Chinese products.
In July, the Development Budget Coordination Committee announced that it scaled down its exports outlook for this year. The DBCC set goods exports growth target at 2 percent due to slower global economic expansion.