Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez exchanged best practices for fostering the startup community with Start-Up Nation Central (SNC) Vice President Eliran Elimelech last 7 June 2022. SNC, an Israel-based organization, is an independent non-profit organization that connects businesses, governments, and NGO leaders from around the world to Israeli innovation companies. SNC also identified technological sectors with high growth potential and helps them to mature.
Sec. Lopez underscored the importance of building collaboration with foreign start-up organizations, including Israel’s SNC. He said, “We aim to expand our global connectedness by engaging with our partners as we connect the Philippine startup ecosystem with other regional and global ecosystems.”
During the meeting, the SNC Vice President discussed how Israel developed a system of support to build their start-up ecosystem. According to Elimelech, technology is the main driver of the Israeli economy and their rich startup community plays a key role in the country’s economic growth. He explained that in order for tech startups to have the right kind of support, they need capable human capital, sufficient resources, and enough money for funding.
Elimelech told the Trade Secretary that there were over 7,000 startups in Israel with 33 unicorns. A unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over USD1 billion. The SNC Vice President also reported that in Israel, the incentives mechanism provided by the Israeli government reaches up to 85%.
For his part, Sec. Lopez described that the Philippine startup ecosystem is composed of a young and vibrant community of highly-skilled and innovative individuals. “Despite some challenges as a young ecosystem, our vision is clear: to make the Philippine tech startup ecosystem an engine of economic recovery, inclusive growth, and job creation,” he added.
The Philippine delegation cited areas of collaboration for startup and innovation organizations. This includes knowledge exchange through a series of innovation forums, collaborative R&D projects, market access facilitation through possible joint ventures with local companies, and knowledge process outsourcing services or manufacturing services to be provided by Filipino companies to Israeli companies.
Lastly, enabling policies for the Philippine start-up ecosystem were also discussed at the meeting, including the Philippine Innovative Startup Act, which aims to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem and culture in the Philippines, and the Startup Venture Fund, a government-led startup investment fund aimed to help startups scale up their products.
Sec. Lopez was joined by Philippine Ambassador to Israel Macairog Alberto, DTI Competitiveness and Innovation Group Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba, DTI Board of Investments (DTI-BOI) Governors Angelica Cayas and Marjorie Ramos-Sarmiento, Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary Cheryl Marie Natividad-Caballero, Philippine Minister and Consul General Reichel Quinones, Third Secretary and Vice Consul Teri Bautista, and Economic
Attaché Anne Grace Comia. Integrated Microelectronics Inc. Key Account Manager Jobert Moleno, IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) Chief Policy and Regulatory Affairs Officer Celeste Ilagan, Admitec Ltd/Ionics EMS President Joseph Orpaz, QBO Executive Director Katrina Chan, and PLDT Vice President for Business Development Gary Ignacio were also present during the meeting.
