THE Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) conducted a focus group discussion (FGD) on the opportunities of the creative services in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was held on October 10 at the DTI International Building in Makati City.
The FGD is one of the interventions under the EMB’s RIPPLES Plus Program where capacity-building sessions provide platforms for service exporters to understand business opportunities and be informed about the recent global market landscapes. This time, the FGD was focused on doing business with Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly in the creative sectors covering the animation, game development, film, music, software development and other information-technology (IT)-enabled services, the business-process outsourcing sector, as well as innovation in digital education.
The information session was attended by eight companies and 29 participants from the said sectors. The opportunities of the creative industries and IT services in Latin America and the Caribbean were presented by John Jairo Villa, expert on IT Creatives in Latin America. In Latin America, the IT and creative industries are called Orange Economy, the color that represents and connotes “an infinite opportunity.”
In Latin America, these industries are called Orange Economy because they trigger the development of people, the economy and, eventually, the country. Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Peru are Latin America countries where these industries have a strong presence. They offer IT services covering software, including mobile applications, video games, media and audiovisuals, such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality. He also presented video clips and graphics about the Latin America creative industry revealing the fast-paced growth for the last five years. This only shows positive opportunities for Philippine creatives to do business and engage with their Lating America counterparts.
Weng Bagadion, CEO of WBagadion Group of Cos., shared with the participants how her company started out in Latin America. Within a period of four years, she experienced reception, and is determined to impart to the Philippine companies the opportunities there for the Philippine creative industry.
Philippine companies that participated in the FGD are I-support Worldwide, Xurpas, CPI Outsourcing, Stratpoint, Toast and Brew, I-Tech Global and CheQ Systems. These companies signified interest to participate in an Outbound Business Matching Mission slated for 2018, an aggressive move em to access the Latin America market for the Philippines’s IT creative industry.