The Board of Investments’ Domestic Investments Promotion Service (BOI-DIPS) conducted a one-day Capability Building Training (CBT) on Investments Promotion in the New Normal for Department of Trade and industry (DTI) Region 2, which was held online on February 22, 2022.
A total of 23 participants from five (5) provinces of Region 2 attended the training, comprised of Provincial Directors, other officers and technical staff as well as participants from Region 2 Office of the Trade Department.
With the aim to equip and enhance the knowledge and skills on the effective use of investments promotion tools to promote sustainable investments in Region 2, the BOI-DIPS crafted a module tailored to fit the needs of the participants who will lead stakeholders in a local and international joint venture (JV) matching/ business to business (B2B) events. In the said training, the participants were informed of the BOI services and its functions, digital shift in investment promotion, understanding the business point of view, and investment promotion briefcase, among others.
Held also was a plenary workshop on the Strength, Weaknesses, Threats, and Opportunities (SWOT) of the area and a break-out session/workshop for the province to brainstorm on a Pitch Deck for Project Promotion. Subsequently, outputs of the said activities will be used for their forthcoming business-to-business (B2B) meetings and/or joint venture (JV) matching activities.
Regional Director Leah Pulido Ocampo’s message, as delivered by OIC ARD Winston Singun, discussed the purposive marketing efforts of DTI Region 2 to facilitate the inflow of investments as well as encourage public facilities and services to flourish across the region for Invest in Bountiful Cagayan Valley project – that aims to capitalize the region’s resources to attract investors in the region.
Last year, DTI Region 2 conducted CBTs for the local government units (LGUs) and for State Universities & Colleges (SUCs). “This year, the BOI will capacitate DTI internal stakeholders to efficiently and effectively assist the LGUs and the SUCs in crafting investor pitch deck. We must equip ourselves with the knowledge, skills and toolsfor us to properly package local governments’ investment projects as outstanding outputs and take the lead and be a part of the online and physical international fairs, events and roadshows such as in CIFIT or HK Belt and Road Summit,” Director Ocampo added.
Meanwhile, BOI-DIPS Director Maria Rosario Dominguez stressed that the key takeaways in the CBT last April 2021, which focused on Image Building and branding, can be used to guide the local governments in doing the ground work if the they would like to participate physically or virtually in Investment Roadshows or Missions.
“They have to prepare projects for promotion and value proposition for the sectors that they want to actively promote,” she said, underscoring that investment promotion strategies do not change, only the execution; the implementation and the platform used will evolve over the years as doing promo work is different 5-years ago. “The pandemic has taught us to break the geographical barriers through digitalization making ourselves felt and creating a dent in the virtual world. In the realm of investments generation, DIPS will show you how the BOI has marketed the Philippines to investors and how the BOI generated leads virtually. The key is knowing the target investor, preparing your location to be able to pitch it and providing assistance whenever necessary,” Director Dominguez added.
Further, in her closing remarks, Mr. Randolf B. Cacacho, OIC-Chief of the Industry Development Division (IDD) of DTI-R2 said that they will closely work with the BOI in coming up with a “good pitch deck for projects to be promoted in international events, fairs, missions and roadshows.”
“As a sign of commitment, they are willing to guide the LGUs and take the lead in doing the groundwork to prepare for such important events that would generate investments that will redound to the benefit of both the businesses and the community as well,” he added