DTI, Robinsons Department Store launch first Go Lokal! store for MSME dev’t in Manila. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez (4th from L) and Robinsons Department Store President and COO Robina Gokongwei-Pe (3rd from R) led the ceremonial launching of the first Go Lokal! store in Robinsons Place Manila on March 24. Go Lokal! is a retail store concept that serves as incubation, marketing, and branding platform for the best of Philippine micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) products including next generation One Town One Product (OTOP) offerings, showcasing modern and indigenous quality products crafted, designed, and created by innovative Philippine MSMEs. It can be found everyday in consumer-frequented locations as a mainstream distribution channel for world-class Filipino products while offering value for money for targeted consumers and tourists. Sec. Lopez said that aside from providing market access for MSME products, the program is a platform for new entrepreneurs to test the marketability of their products without the fear of losing rental and commercial costs because their experience is free of charge. Go Lokal! carries only globally competitive, world-class packaged products to encourage entrepreneurs to always level-up and innovate so they can be featured. After they are incubated and discovered, the program will feature the next deserving batch. Robinsons Department Store, an affiliate of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc.,is the first to launch the project in a mainstream outlet. Joining them were Robinsons Department Store General Manager Johnson Go (leftmost), DTI Director Rhodora Leaño (2nd from L), DTI Asst. Secretary Rosvi Gaetos (3rd from L), Robinsons Malls Luzon Operations Director Irvin Wu (2nd from R) and celebrity endorser Maricar Reyes-Poon (rightmost).

In the effort to solidify and operationalize the Strategic Cooperation Agreement signed during the visit of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to Beijing last October 2016, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in partnership with the Bank of China (BOC), the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), and the International Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ICCP) organized the Philippines-China SME Cross-border Business Matching on 18 March at the Manila Hotel. DTI Secretary Ramon M. Lopez (right) and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang (left), who was in the country for a 3-day official visit, graced the event to underscore both governments’ strong support for SME development initiatives and for the renewed commercial engagements between the two countries. The business matching sessions brought together more than 600 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from Philippines and China representing industries such as agriculture, fisheries, food processing, furniture, tourism, real estate, construction, construction equipment and building materials, iron and steel, e-commerce and information technology, textiles and garments.

NEW CHINESE TRADE MINISTER MARKS FIRST OFFICIAL VISIT TO PHL. On his first official visit to the Philippines, China’s newly-appointed Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) Minister Zhong Shan (R) met with the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez (L) on 7 March in Makati during the 28th Philippine-Chinese Joint Commission on Economic and Trade Cooperation (JCTEC). Serving as the official bilateral mechanism for discussion of trade, investments and economic cooperation, the JCETC was convened after a five-year hiatus, and serves as a quick follow through of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s State Visit to China last October 2016. Both sides agreed on important initiatives geared towards improving overall levels of trade and investment between the two countries. Discussion highlights included the Six-Year Development Program for Economic and Trade Cooperation (SYDP) that will serve as the overall framework for economic relations from 2017-2022, the list of priority infrastructure projects to be funded by available Chinese credit facility and potential private sector investments from China on oil downstream projects, aviation industry (including aircraft parts manufacturing), waste to energy through gasification, ship building, and ship repair facility and integrated steel facility