Filipino youth Go Global to tap new trade opportunities

A significant portion of the one million small businesses in the Philippines are youth-owned and managed.

The Youth and Trade Programme at the International Trade Centre (ITC) created the Ye! Community to help youth entrepreneurs to build scalable businesses. The Ye! Community is a global network of youth, mentors, and ecosystem enablers. It provides free access to start-up trainings, resources, events and business opportunities.

The Go Global campaign achieves that goal with ITC’s flagship tools:

• Trade Map, to evaluate the global market for specific products and services
• Export Potential Map, to identify forward-looking opportunities
• Global Trade Helpdesk, to get a strategic overview across 11 trade intelligence platforms, for information about imports, market dynamics, tariffs, regulatory requirements, trade finance providers, potential buyers and more.

The campaign reached more than 13,000 accounts on Facebook and Instagram and garnered nearly 5,000 impressions on LinkedIn. The training session on 8 April brought together 15 young Filipino entrepreneurs working in agriculture, sustainability, accessibility, and furniture. Through hands-on, practical sessions, the entrepreneurs learned how to leverage the tools to inform their export strategies.

‘We are thrilled by the positive feedback from our attendees and delighted at how seamlessly the Global Trade Helpdesk, Trade Map, Export Potential Map, and Google Market Finder have supported them. These tools have proven to be incredibly intuitive and invaluable in offering detailed insights into their target industries in destination countries,’ said Jeremy Salomon, ITC Trainer and founder of the JLSMEBC consultancy.

Jael Cortez founded TERPCAP, a consultancy that makes workplaces more inclusive for people with disabilities. She said the tools would help offer their services globally.

‘These tools help us bridge the digital divide by providing underserved MSMEs with the access and resources they need to compete in the international arena,’ said Miguel Lopez, National Youth Entrepreneurship Lead for the ITC. ‘It is surprising that the utilization rate of these tools among young Filipinos is very low, highlighting the importance of crafting more programs like this, especially outside the metropolitan centres.’

Felix Veroya, founder and CEO of edtech company Ask Lex PH, said more people were joining their workplace training programmes in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. AskLex PH aims to broaden their market and incorporate best practices from these regions.

GoGlobal is run by the Ye Community of the Philippines and the Arise Plus Philippines Young Entrepreneurs (YE)! Boost Accelerator Programme. It’s funded by the European Union and led by ITC, in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry - Competitiveness Innovation Group and QBO Innovation Hub.

About the Ye! Community

The ITC Ye! Community powered by the Youth and Trade Programme is aimed at helping youth entrepreneurs to build scalable and sustainable businesses. The Ye! Community provides access to a global network of youth, mentors and ecosystem enablers, as well as free access to start-up trainings, resources, events and business opportunities.

About Global Trade Helpdesk

The Global Trade Helpdesk is an integrated digital platform designed to help firms of all sizes simplify their market research for their products. It brings together key trade and market information from 11 partner agencies into a single search. The Global Trade Helpdesk is an initiative of the International Trade Centre, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the World Trade Organization with the participation of the African Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the World Customs Organization, the World Bank Group and the World Intellectual Property Organization.