“The sari-sari store concept of doing business is over.”
Newly appointed City Planning and Development Coordinator, Arch. Donna Rillera-Tabangin, said the city should focus resources in encouraging fresh ideas “that anticipate needs and solve problems.”
“Just like Osaka, Japan and (the city-state of) Singapore, Baguio City could become an ‘incubator city’, giving birth to businesses that are more resilient to (adversities),” Tabangin said during the department heads meeting chaired by Mayor Benjamin Magalong.
She said the city should offer growth opportunities to medium, small, and micro enterprises (MSMEs) composed of upstarts who are not afraid of marrying novelty with technology.
This, she said, can propel the city’s economy to a level where it could withstand crises similar to the Covid-19 pandemic the world is experiencing now.
As a take-off point, Tabangin reminded that Baguio is an education center.
“We could tap experts from the academe to help in the paradigm shift in local business. Baguio can become a laboratory for entrepreneurs,” she said.
She suggested those who have novel ideas should be allowed to jumpstart their businesses under relaxed conditions.
“Our budding tycoons can apply for business permits if they find that their ideas feasible after a year of ‘incubation’,” she said.
This way, she added, the number of failing e nterprises will decrease. – Gaby Keith
April 24, 2024
