SLIDE 1-2:

Good morning fellow public servants and to our dear participants in this we-
binar.

I’d like to thank our partner, the DTI Consumer Protection Group, through
the Consumer Policy and Advocacy Bureau for this opportunity to share
with you what NBDB or book board is all about and what we offer to you

Today, I will be your tour guide and storyteller, and together we will explore
the world of the creatives industry.

Before we start, may I request our dear participants to hit some emojis.
First, kindly thumbs up, who are book authors? smiley for illustrators? raise
hands for publishers and book distributors, and a heart react for all readers
in this room.

Thank you very much

My presentation today will revolve around the questions of:

Who we are,
Who we work with or
Whom do we serve
What we do
How we do it
And How do we collaborate!
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SLIDE 3:

Let’s start with What is NBDB or book board, for short?

We are the lead agency in research and development of the book

publishing value chain in the Philippines. When we say book pub-
lishing value chain, it involves the whole ecosystem: from the cre-
ation of a work (which is the product of the mind), to its publica-
tion, to distribution, and eventually to the readers.

As a National Government Agency or NGA our legal existence is

based on Republic Act No. 8047, otherwise known as the book
publishing industry development act by then Pres. Fidel Ramos
on June 7, 1995.

We are initially under the administrative supervision of the Office

of the President, but in 2003, thru Administrative Order NO. 189
signed by then Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, this supervision
was transferred to the DepEd pursuant to the President’s continu-
ing authority to reorganize the Office of the President including
the transfer of any agency from Office of the President to other
departments.

Because our role is significant in national development, we keep

our objective to obtain priority status for the book publishing in-
dustry that ensures adequacy, affordability, and accessibility of
quality books for all.

That is why we are committed to adhering to the UNESCO princi-

ple of the free flow of information under the Florence Agreement
and similar international agreements.

Under RA8047 or the law that created our agency, our core func-
tion includes:
1. Formulation, adoption and implementation of the national
book policy and national book development plan
2. Provide capacity-building services
3. Promote investments, develop our market, both local and
abroad
4. Administer incentives geared toward encouraging the pro-
duction of excellent and affordable books.

Later we will discuss these in detail through our programs.

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SLIDE 4:
Who we work with and whom do we serve? Who benefits our services? Or
in short, who are our stakeholders in the creative industry.
 1. Government agencies and organizations: We work with poli-
cymakers (we are part of education committee or edcom,
with the house of representatives, particularly with the com-
mittee on basic education, and its counterpart in the senate,
we work with DBM for our budget among others), (educa-
tional institutions such as the deped, ched, and tesda. We
conduct research, we provide them data to accurately deter-
mine the specification required for their procurement activi-
ties for books, we accredit them as partners in the imple-
mentation of book-related activities.
2. Content creators & creatives. These are your authors, illus-
trators, layout artists, comic book artists, and many others.
What do we provide them? we provide trainings, scholar-
ships to trainings and seminars, send them to rights trading
activities, and we hire them as resource speaker, to name a
few
3. Publishers (these cover private entities and government pub-
lication houses)
4. Distribution value chain for the enhanced business matching
opportunities, incentives and marketing outlets. It includes
your book sellers and retailers, as well as our libraries
5. And Last but not the least, and equally relevant stakehold-
ers: We have the consumers: we the readers, and even non-
readers because our goal is to remove those barriers to
reading.

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SLIDE 5:

With our solutions-based programming, we translate our core

functions to programs that focus on
1. research and development
2. documentation of stakeholders
3. readership development
4. Databasing publications
5. Publishing professionalization
6. Improving competitiveness through business matching and
market saturation
7. And revitalizing the NBDB law

At this point, let me underscore some of our flagship programs that

contribute to the development of the creatives industry.

In 2021 and 2022, NBDB established a reading community space in indige-

nous, remote, and highly populated areas around the Philippines and dias-
poric Filipino communities around the world. We called this program, the
Book Nook. The NBDB helps develop reading habits and writing spaces;
provides more than 1,000 Filipino-authored books curated for communities
across the country; and conducts workshops on establishing procedures,
teaching reading, book cataloging, and partnerships, among others. We
started with 88 site, but to date, the NBDB has 113 sites from Abra to Tawi-
Tawi. We have reached more than 21,000 readers nationwide and can
reach to more than 600,000 filipinos through this program.

- We thank you DTI through your Malikhaing Pinoy Program and Senator
Pia Cayetano for additional funding. We were able to purchase more
books for our book nook sites, especially for the 25 additional sites in
2023.

PHILIPPINE BOOK FESTIVAL (PBF) is an all-inclusive and programs-

centered book fair that primarily features Filipino-authored books and mate-
rials for institutional and retail purchases. It is a celebration of books and
reading for Filipinos by Filipinos.
It will be implemented in Luzon in April 2025 to coincide with the Deped’s
scoping, evaluation and procurement activities.

This grant/subsidy provides financial assistance to NBDB-accredited CGI

partners to initiate book fair in their respective regions and adjacent prov-
inces. It aims to stimulate the book industry in the regions by providing a
venue for publishers, agents, distributors and retailers to meet and do busi-
ness.

Since 2024, the PBF in the Regions (PBFR) coordinates with the DepEd
Regional Offices to support procurement activities while promoting local
outputs and market access in the regions. The goals of the project particu-
larly in increasing local production access points and increasing institutional
orders are aligned to the DepEd goals of bringing the procurement of sup-
plementary materials to the regional level and even School District Offices
(SDO) levels.

The PBF in the Regions also provides platforms for authors to meet the
public. Further, the RBF pursues to promote and highlight locally published
materials especially in their respective mother tongues.

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SLIDE 6:

NBDB supports both local and international book fairs as part of our trade
promotions. For our international fairs alone, we have showcased over 800
books from over 30 Philippine publishers, with over 70 Philippine dele-
gates.

TRADE PROMOTIONS: what we do?

International fairs and trade engagement programs. These are the

NBDB’s initiative to push for the rights and retail distribution of Philippine-
published books across the globe. NBDB’s participation in these interna-
tional engagements is rooted in meeting the objectives of the Philippine De-
velopment Plan, National Book Policy, Book Industry Roadmap, and in-
creased visibility on international platforms.

We have a Business Matching Event for Publishers and Distributors de-

signed to bring together book publishers and distributors in an interactive
and collaborative environment. The event will facilitate meaningful connec-
tions, foster business partnerships, and promote collaboration within the
publishing industry. Once we’ve engaged them, our publishers can focus
on producing and marketing books, while the distributors will move the
books into the hands of retailers and readers effectively.

Some international fairs we regularly attend are the Frankfurt book fair, an-
gouleme international comics festival, asian festival of children’s content,
the London book fair, and the bologna children’s book fair.

Frankfurt Book Fair or Franfurter Buchmesse is the largest book fair in

the world. This is a rights trading fair and on the last day, they allow retail. I
will discuss more of this in the last part of my presentation.
The Angouleme International Comics Festival is one of the most presti-
gious comics fairs in the world - this has been proven with the Philippine’s
participation since last year where our CGI (CSO, Govt, INDL) partner,
Komiket, was able to close deals with a German publisher

The festival has a rights market, a comics museum, a manga market, a

comics art market, and comics market for big and small presses – even ex-
hibitions and masterclasses for festival goers. This happens every January
in Angouleme, France with more than 200,000 festival goers with 7,000
professionals joining the fair. A great avenue for our comics.

Another is The Asian Festival of Children's Content (AFCC). This is an

annual festival that promotes and advocates the creation, development and
appreciation of quality Asian stories for children and young adults.

I will discuss more of this in the last part of my presentation. Along with the
Frankfurt book fair.
The London Book Fair (LBF) has become an essential part of the interna-
tional book trade calendar and is the pre-eminent Spring event of the pub-
lishing year.

LBF is the perfect place for exhibitors to engage with customers, build
brand awareness, conduct face-to-face business, and make sales. LBF of-
fers exhibitors all-inclusive, cost-effective packages courtesy of our in-
house stand design and build service that helps to create the perfect plat-
form to showcase your business.

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) is the world’s largest book fair
and book event for children’s books. This years marks its 60th year. For the
last 60 years, BCBF has brought together publishers, authors, literary
agents, translators, graphic designers, distributors, printers and other chil-
dren’s book industry stakeholders for an event that not only seeks to ex-
pand children’s book-related businesses, but also expand stakeholders’
knowledge of the art and craft of making children’s books.

The BCBF has an interesting exhibit and programme that includes the
world-renowned Illustrators Exhibition as well as the prestigious Bologna
Ragazzi awards. BCBF is truly not just an international rights forum for all
types of children’s content, but also a showcase of the depth and breadth
of children’s literature across the globe.
We were there last April together with our partner, Philippine Board on
Books for young People.

For GRANTS

We have the NBDTF, or the National Book Development Trust Fund grant.
This is a writing grant that provides funding for manuscript development in
science and technology or in subject areas wherein locally authored books
are few or nonexistent.

So kung may book development, ang susunod jan ay publication.

And so we have the Publication grant that provides financial subsidies to

the publication of Filipino-authored books for the GLOBAL audience cover-
ing the costs of editing, layout, book cover design, and printing of books

To complete our programs for the expansion of the book publishing indus-
try, we have….

INCENTIVES and SUBSIDIES

As we gear towards our role as guest of honour in the Frankfurt Book Fair
next year, we have launched The Translation Subsidy Program that pro-
vides financial subsidies to publishers who wish to translate a Filipino-pub-
lished book from a) a Philippine language to another Philippine language,
b) English to a Philippine language, and c) a Philippine language to Eng-
lish.

Imagine purchasing a book at a very affordable and discounted price! The

Great Trade Book Subsidy program provides subsidy to the publishers
so that they can sell their books at discounts up to 90% to the final con-
sumer. The program aims to promote readership by providing retail dis-
count to end user as well as increase in book sales revenue of children’s
book, academic presses, graphic literature, Indie Presses and University
Presses publishers.
Tax- and Duty-Free Importation of Raw Materials for Book Publishing
is an incentive offered to NBDB-registered enterprises engaged in book
publishing and book printing. Also included in the list of beneficiaries are
those enterprises which form a book industry association. This particular in-
centive waives the taxes and duties, levied by the national government,
due to the importation. Other than tax and duty exemptions, other benefits
come along with it, that are substantial to MSMEs. TADFI of Raw Materials
comprises three major processes in the NBDB which are: approval; en-
dorsement of shipment to the DOF; and its liquidation.

Income tax Holiday which is part of the fiscal incentives provided for under
the CREATE LAW. Wala pa nag-aavail nito from the book publishing indus-
try since the law was enacted. Our role is to endorse applicants to the De-
partment of Finance.

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SLIDE 7:

At NBDB, we have the policy and research arm that provides technical as-
sistance and policy development of the industry.

RESEARCH AND POLICY

For the Readership Survey, we have recently released the result of the
survey conducted by NBDB in partnership with Social Weather Station. The
result is available through our website and social media account. Some
data we obtained includes most common tool or device used in reading,
type of books or most common genre people read.

Another product to be undertaken this year is the Book Supply Chain

Analysis is a research product that aims to identify the gaps in the philip-
pine book supply chain (from authors to publishers, publishers to printers,
and distributors, and distributors to institutional and individual endusers.
The output of this project will be used to update the national book policy
and the national book development plan.

The Skills Mapping for the Book Industry is an initiative which aims to
identify training needs and possible industry mismatch of the labor force in
each publishing value chain. This will be done through a series of consulta-
tions and workshops with various stakeholders and industry experts.
Amendment to the NBDB Law or RA8047. Check House Bill Number
HB10482 amending RA8047 Introduced by the ACCIV Bloc (Arts and Cul-
ture and Creative Industries Bloc (ACCIB) in the House led by Cong. Toff
de Venecia, and its counterpart bill in the Senate through Senate Bill No.
2712, introduced by our dear Senator Loren Legarda. Among the amend-
ments include an update on the definition of books to include all other
medium, professionalization and institutionalization of some of our flagship
programs, among others.

Part of our capacity-building initiative is the BOOK INSTITUTE

The Book Institute of the Philippines aims to become the premier train-
ing ground for book publishing professionals and people aspiring to work in
the book publishing industry. The Book Institute offers short courses and
masterclasses on contract management, sales and marketing, business
pitching, advanced editing in different genres (romance, creative nonfic-
tion), among others.

AWARDS

The National Book Awards (NBA), organized by the National Book Devel-
opment Board (NBDB) in partnership with the Manila Critics Circle, is an
annual prize that honors the most prestigious book titles written, designed,
and published in the Philippines. NBA continues to stimulate literary pro-
duction and the book trade by highlighting the continued significance of
books and reading in the daily lives of Filipinos.

National Children’s Book Awards is a biennial award given by the NBDB

and the PBBY in recognition of best reads in both children's and young
adult literatures

We also support other awards such as the Gintong Aklat Award.

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SLIDE 8:
The Philippines is guest of honor at the 77th Frankfurt Book Fair next
year, 2025, a significant milestone for Filipino creatives. What it takes to the
GOH in Frankfurt. This will provide a unique opportunity to showcase our
diverse titles to an international audience opening up rights sales, transla-
tion, and distribution.

Another significant milestone for the philippine book publishing industry is

The AFCC.

AFCC is Organized by the Singapore Book Council. The festival's main

programs comprise conference presentations, panels, masterclasses,
workshops, and lectures. AFCC also features a book fair showcasing a di-
verse selection of books from Singapore, Asian, and international publish-
ers, as well as a line-up of free public programs.

The Festival aims at providing an opportunity to the community of children’s

content creators to share their challenges and achievements, to develop
new stories as well as explore the possibilities of marketing their publica-
tions both regionally and globally.

AFCC also focuses on Asian content. It is important for children in Asia to-
day to see and read about characters and situations that they can relate to
and resonate with. In addition, it is also necessary for children in the rest of
the world to be exposed to books from Asia as well, so that they have a
better understanding of Asian culture, tradition, and way of life. As global-
ization becomes prevalent, the need for books from each of the Asian
countries to be readily and easily available in and beyond Asia, has be-
come increasingly relevant. Hence, AFCC not only promotes the creation of
more Asia content but also explores its ready availability it throughout the
world. In May this year, the Philippines was selected as the country of fo-
cus.

SO there,

Those are our major programs in NBDB.

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SLIDE 9:

Here are the QR codes linking to the guidelines, requirements, and steps to
avail of the grants and incentives I mentioned a while ago.
Why support the NBDB?
- because we provide platforms for private publisher engagement with
deped and other institutional buyers,
- We increase access to quality of filipino books
- We aggresively promote filipino contents here and abroad
- And we empower filipino creatives

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SLIDE 10:

If you are engaged in any of the activities I mentioned, we can help you
start or build your dreams of writing your own stories and be known to the
world. We encourage you to register with us through

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SLIDE 11:

With that, thank you very much for listening. Together let us collaborate
and build a community of readers and creativity.