Access to incentives and liberalization would be key in achieving the Philippines’ ambition to be the number one creative economy in Asean.
The Creative Economy Council of the Philippines (CECP) is pushing for the creation of economic zones for the sector to give companies access to incentives.
Paolo Mercado, CECP president, told a forum of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, the country should pursue earlier plans of setting up creative ecozones much like in the information technology-business processing outsourcing and manufacturing which are all export hubs.
Creative ecozones, Mercado said, have been known to incubate industries like the ones in Dubai and in the US, Hollywood for films and Silicon Valley for technology.
Some of the potential creative hubs were either discontinued or never started.
These include Maestranza in Intramuros, Dominican Hill in Baguio City and an area in Clark.
Mercado said with physical creative hubs closed down due to the pandemic, the government could explore as a policy the grant of incentives to home-based and virtual creative exporters.
Economist Bernardo Villegas in the same forum said telecommunication, media and advertising– which play a key role in the creative sector – should be opened further to foreign equity participation as they have merged into one industry
Trade undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba agreed the 30-percent equity restriction in advertising needs to be eased if the country wants to attract more foreign investments in the sector.
The Philippines currently ranks fifth in Asean in creative trade in goods but is number one on creative services exports.
