SMEs urged: Join exhibits, widen market reach

SMALL, and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Cebu are encouraged to widen their market and try to reach international buyers.

Some officials of the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) are in Cebu to do just this – campaign and invite more exhibitors to their activities.

Among their flagship programs is the Manila FAME, where businesses all over the country converge to showcase their products for buyers and customers all over the globe.

According to Luzviminda Soriano, information officer of CITEM, they have noted that as they continue to promote Philippine products to other countries, the local market has also started to become bigger especially with foreign investors coming into the country.

These foreign investors, that put up resorts or hotels in the country, source their product needs like furniture, interior designs and the like from local manufacturers and businesses.

“But we still continue to scout for big international buyers. If we rely only on the local market, it may not last long. We need also international buyers to sustain what we have right now. The (developing) local market is just a bonus,” Soriano said in a meetup with Cebu reporters on Wednesday.

She said their personnel, together with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) regional and provincial offices have been meeting with MSMEs in different parts of the country to invite them to join the Manila FAME, their bi-annual “showcase of craftsmanship, design innovation, and artisanship in Philippine products.”

Featured products include furniture and home furnishings, holiday gifts and décor, and fashion accessories among others.

The CITEM is the export promotion arm of the DTI. It has been their goal to develop and promote globally-competitive SMEs, exporters, designers, and manufacturers.

This year’s Manila FAME, which will be the 67th edition, is happening on April 19 to 21 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. Another leg is slated in October.

Around 400 exhibitors are expected to join the April edition of Manila FAME. Although they could not provide specific numbers, CITEM said Cebu exhibitors comprise a significant number of these exhibitors and they have their own pavilion in the venue.

Manila FAME is the second longest-running trade show in the Asia-Pacific region. It is also the only trade event in the Philippines that is approved by the Union des Foires Internationales (UFI) or the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, a Paris-based association of trade fair organizers founded on April 1925.