Magandang araw sa inyong lahat. 

I’d like to first greet our distinguished guests, speakers, and participants in the second edition of CREATE Philippines’ Creative Futures 2022. I’d also like to congratulate CITEM and its partner institutions for successfully staging this flagship event, which brings together the country’s most creative minds and experts to foster an enabling environment for the Philippine creative economy. What brings us together today must be repeated: Creativity is in the Filipino DNA, quietly feeding humanity’s soul and the Philippine economy. Whether we create or experience them, the creative industry improves our quality of life. Through the works of world-class Filipino creatives, we can discover, share, and recreate the story of our nation in books, galleries, halls, and theaters, as well as in our homes and public spaces.

Unfortunately, the pandemic has had a significant impact on the creative industry. We lost many businesses, jobs, and incomes. DTI previously estimated that the pandemic cost the local creative industries 90 percent of their revenue. Approximately 61 percent of arts and entertainment companies ceased operations, and more than one-fifth of these businesses were permanently closed.

But we are reclaiming our path to development. Before the pandemic in 2019, the creative industries employed 4.8 million Filipinos. As the world approaches the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we are marching forward to the global stage and going above and beyond to support the digitalization of creative industries. We prepare the industry’s specific sub-sectors based on significant developments such as Industry 4.0. According to UNCTAD Creative Industry 4.0, the value of global creative goods exports was $548 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This amount was equivalent to about 3% of the total value of global merchandise exports for the year. Furthermore, according to preliminary estimates, global trade in creative services was around USD1 trillion in 2019, accounting for 18% of total trade in commercial services.

DTI has been implementing the Creative Economy Strategy of the Philippines, or CREST PH, as we tackle the challenges of the new normal and help build a supportive environment for the creative industries to promote integrated industry development for the sector. CREST PH takes a holistic approach to improving the competitiveness of the creative industries, facilitating the development and promotion of creative goods exports, and assisting creative firms in accessing the global market. CREST PH employs a suite of interventions to address the sector’s top, binding constraints.

Evidence-based solutions address critical concerns of creative firms, ranging from innovation readiness and technology adoption to digital transformation. Supplementary solutions include advocacy, data analytics, knowledge management, and competency development.

The DTI’s Competitiveness and Innovation Group has also developed six roadmaps so far. Digital advertising, animation, game development, software development, toys and characters, and TV, radio, and print media are all examples. The roadmaps are essential in getting stakeholders to agree on where to take specific creative industries.

The sub-sector roadmaps and whole-of-government coordination efforts contribute to the overall Creative Economy Roadmap’s success. “By 2030, the Philippines will be the number one creative economy in ASEAN in terms of size and value…, as well as the competitiveness and attractiveness of our creative talent and content in international markets,” says the Roadmap.

We advance concrete policy recommendations in support of this vision. Among these are making creativity a national priority, promoting creative hubs and clusters, and advocating for the development of Philippine Creative Cities. In his State of the Union address, the President recently mentioned the creative industries as one of the priority sectors. On May 31, 2022, the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act was passed by Congress.

We are embarking on a global journey together. In the Global Innovation Index, we were ranked 10th out of 130 economies in creative goods exports in 2021. The creative economy’s potential is enormous, and this is what many of you animate and enliven.

We can work together to build a vibrant, scaled-up Philippine creative economy at the forefront of the Asia-Pacific Region, driving our country’s development and enriching our culture. It is an industry powered by individuals like you and enriched by platforms like Creative Futures 2022.

Maraming salamat at mabuhay tayong lahat! ♦

Date of Release: 28 July 2022