Habito urges Cebu to maximize creative edge

CEBU, Philippines — Economist Cielito Flores Habito urged Cebu to capitalize on its creative edge, as it is well-positioned to lead the rise of the creative economy in the country.

Habito, former chief of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), believes that one of the best economic boosters for Cebu, as it is reeling from the effects of the pandemic and typhoon Odette, is the strong promotion of the creative sector.

Habito was in Cebu recently to conduct an economic briefing hosted by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) during the organization’s general membership meeting (GMM), said that it is highly recommended for Cebu strongly develop its creative industry, particularly that national government led by the top leadership in Malacañang is vocal in its support to cash in the potential of the creative industry in the county through that national branding initiative.

“Cebu has been the seat of the furniture exports industry, this creative edge manifested high income in the manufacturing sector. Now, we have animation, software, artistic production, and perhaps music,” noted Habito explaining that putting more weight on the development of the creative sector is not a difficult road to take.

Aside from the creative sector, Cebu could also revisit its potential in attracting medical tourists, by pursuing programs that build up the medical tourism advantage.

Just like other economists, and outside observers, Habito expressed confidence that if the Philippines will be able to take advantage of the globally renowned nurses and medical professionals, it could catch up with other medical tourism destinations in Asia, like Singapore and Thailand.

“We have to get our acts together in terms of institutional support to be able to make our creative and medical tourism economy grow,” said Habito.

Meanwhile, the Philippines is looking at growing its creative industry with the creation of the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act, which provides adequate support measures to the Philippine creative industries which currently face various binding constraints to growth, such as high output costs, fragmented education systems, piracy issues, lack of data and statistics, underdeveloped branding and infrastructure, and wide skill gaps and mismatch, among others.

The country’s creative industries contribute almost eight percent to the economy, employing five million workers and generating exports accounting for 12 percent of the country’s total exports.

Promote Local Investments

From encouraging a serious push in the creative sector, Habito went on to remind industry captains, including local government executives to work hard on providing ease of doing business in their respective localities, mentioning corruption as the main culprit of achieving an attractive environment for investors.

Before extending so much effort in attracting foreign investments, local investors should display high interest in putting their money locally, instead of considering investments abroad.

“Attract domestic investments, not just foreign investors,” he stressed adding that if more Filipinos are taking their money out of the country to invest somewhere else, “then we have a big problem of attracting foreigners to invest here.”

“We can talk about the best infrastructure, we can talk about the cost of energy, but the factor remains that as long as the cost of doing business is so high because of government uncertainties (including corruption) then we are going to have continuing problems in attracting investors,” he added.