A group of creative-oriented professionals and thought leaders have formed the Philippine Branding Alliance for the Belt and Road, dubbed ‘The Alliance’, which held its first Assembly at Makati City. The Alliance encompasses the broad field of branding, advertising, arts, design, music, culinary, and architecture; and aims to forge partnerships with China and the countries of the Belt and Road to propel the creative industries underlying cultural understanding as well as people-to-people relations.
“The economic rise of China and the Belt and Road countries is a growing reality…Our relationship and public discourse on China has always been political. We feel it’s an important issue to continue resolving; but in areas where we can already cooperate, we feel that working together is best for everybody,” said JC Valenzuela, chief executive officer of Propel Manila and a founding member of The Alliance.
He pointed out that the Philippines and all Filipinos can benefit from the massive economic opportunities arising from the continuing drive to spur economic integration and people-to-people connectivity across Europe, Russia, South, Southeast, and Central Asia by land (the “Road”); and connecting China’s coastal regions with South and Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, the Middle East, Eastern Africa, and Europe, by sea (the “Belt”).
Earlier in May this year, Valenzuela held exploratory talks with the president of the China Council for Brand Development, Liu Pingjun, in Beijing where the latter expressed his support for the PBABR to pursue partnerships among the 70 belt and road countries that account for about 65 percent of the world’s population and around a third of the world’s Gross Domestic Product.
The PBABR also aims to play a role in actively consolidating Philippine brands under a national brand strategy to push more quality goods, services and tourism destinations in the global market.
“We feel that it is likewise important that the East contribute to the authorship of how brands and the standard of what brands should uphold” — Marlon Rivera, Chair of The Alliance.
Among the PBABR’s key objectives are enabling its members access to knowledge resources on branding standards, best practices and customer preferences among the belt and road countries.
The Alliance is currently gathering more companies, institutions, and experts to join and push its objectives forward.
Interested parties can learn more about it on their social media pages (@BrandAlliancePH).