December 2nd, 2021
House Ways and Means Chair Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay, 2nd district) called for a “Build, Build, Build for Creative Industries,” or massive investments in cultural products such as film, music, and visual art, which Salceda says is “the new tourism in a more virtual and more digital world.”
Salceda made the remarks during and after his comments to the attendees of the Arangkada Philippines: Pathway to a Better Future conference organized by the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC).
“The biggest thing there of course would be a national broadband, especially connectivity because it allows for your ideas to freely flow so that so when you say BBB [Build, Build, Build], actually the number one in the list is a national broadband and then of course all those other institutions that essentially promote creative industries, promote culture and promote arts and heritage,” Salceda said.
Salceda also called creative industries during the pandemic “virtual tourism.”
“Have you seen some of those Korean virtual concerts? Some of their entertainment companies even braved the storm and underwent IPOs this year. I read the financial reports of the major Korean entertainment companies, and nearly all the big ones saw surges, not declines, in their revenues due to intense consumption of their online and virtual products.”
“I find that nothing short of amazing. That is the power of a strong creative sector.”
“As the world could not travel due to the pandemic, consumers were hungry for alternative modes of entertainment that would allow them to experience the cultures of other countries. Korea just went for it.”
“Around 12% of the Philippines’ GDP is in tourism. Imagine if we recaptured some of the lost output via essentially virtual tourism as Korea did. The economy would not have shrunk as much as it did in 2020.”
Salceda says that he believes that “a strong ecosystem that allows for creative and artistic freedom, inter-cultural exchange between countries, massive investments in support infrastructure, endowments for budding artists, and technology to monetize the creatives” would be key elements of building a strong creatives sector.
Salceda also recalled that he first proposed the creation of the Committee on the Creative Industries in the House in a February 2020 memorandum to the House leadership.
“I then called the emerging pandemic slump a crisis of confidence in the markets, and wanted to encourage the Congress to go for new sectors that would buoy new enthusiasm, instead of relying on old sectors that may no longer have much runway.”
“Filipinos are known abroad for skill in the creatives, but we have not really maximized it. We don’t lack the talent. We lack the system.”