Ideas & Opportunities

To compete in a global marketplace, Filipino entrepreneurs will do well by innovating and offering better solutions to market problems. After its successful opening in last year, the national launching of the Ang Tindahang Pinoy (ATP), a showcase for Filipino innovation, will be held on April 19 this year at the Bridges Town Square in Mandaue City, Cebu.
 
Located in Bridges Town Square along Plaridel Street in Mandaue City, Ang Tindahang Pinoy showcases and sells world-class products catering to local and foreign tourists. Around 70 percent of products in the Ang Tindahang Pinoy Cebu outlet will be sourced from Central Visayas and 30 percent from other regions in the Philippines. Products under the One Town, One Product (OTOP) program of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will also be displayed.
 

DTI Central Visayas regional director Asteria Caberte said that video presentations of ATPs in Cebu, Clark and Davao will be shown during the launching to give buyers, exporters, traders, retailers, travel associations, among others a glimpse of the product depots in these areas.
 

Ang Tindahang Pinoy in Cebu is a joint project of the DTI and the Cebu Gift, Toys and Houseware Foundation, Inc. (Cebu-GTH). Since Ang Tindahang Pinoy opened in December last year, Cebu GTH Vice-President for External Affairs Pedro Sepulveda Jr. said that the sales of the showroom are continually increasing since they are being aggressive in their marketing strategies. For March alone this year, the Cebu product depot garnered around P300,000 in sales.
 

The project aims to expand market access for micro, small and medium businesses. DTI and Cebu-GTH forged a partnership with the Department of Tourism and the associations of tour guides and tour operators in Cebu for the promotion of Ang Tindahang Pinoy to tourists. DTI also tapped the GIZ, a technical agency of the German government, for the production of a video catalogue to promote the products of Tindahang Pinoy.
 

DTI also announced that the Product Development and Design Center of the Philippines will also be working on product catalogues and brochures that will be distributed to major hotels, resorts and airports in the country.