THE DEPARTMENT of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has partnered with Impact Hub Manila for expanding its program on engaging communities to encourage start-ups.
DICT has partnered with Impact Hub Manila, an incubator, for Elevate National Roadshow. Impact Hub Manila is the local unit of Impact Hub, a global start-up incubator.
The road show is set to promote information and communications technology entrepreneurship in the Philippines, and to create awareness about start-ups, among others.
It will include stops in Clark, Pampanga; Baguio; Iloilo; Dumaguete; and Cagayan de Oro, all scheduled for this year. The first one is scheduled for August.
Impact Hub offers incubation programs, corporate innovation, and entrepreneurial leadership training, among others.
The road show is part of SeedPH, a project carried over from the time when the DICT was still an office under the Department of Science and Technology.
Among the other projects under the initiative are the Philippine Startup Challenge. For this year, students who developed an application called Centsilyo, which prohibits establishments from giving insufficient or no change to customers, won the agency’s competition.
The measure seeks to support innovative start-ups through financial subsidies like tax breaks and grants, easier business registration procedures and technical assistance and training programs.
The Senate on May 16 approved on third and final reading Senate Bill No. 1532 or the Innovative Startup Act, which seeks to support start-ups through subsidies and easier business registration procedures, as well as technical assistance and training. Proponent Senator Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV noted that the Philippines is among the most unfriendly to start-ups, citing a study by Value Penguin. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo
