Wearing a Filipiniana-inspired dress as she sat on a green bean-shaped couch on that balmy Tuesday afternoon, she exuded the hope and vibrant direction of her office.

       Last June, Leah P. Ocampo, former Regional Director for Region 2 of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), was appointed as the new executive director of the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM). 

       Warmly referred to by her colleagues at the DTI as a “homegrown talent,” Ocampo comes with a 40-year track record in export marketing and promotions that had its beginnings in 1984, the year she started working with CITEM as a Research Analyst.

       CITEM, established as a DTI attached agency in 1983, became the export promotion authority of the Philippine government responsible for shaping the nation’s image as the premier destination for quality export products and services.

       It is here at CITEM that Ocampo rose from the ranks. “When I started to work with CITEM, I started from the lowest rank. I was a Researcher Analyst and that’s basically the lowest technical position in CITEM, way back in 1984,” Ocampo recalled.

       The future CITEM executive director earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Sciences with majors in Economics and Sociology from the University of the Philippines.

       With her beginner’s enthusiasm matched by solid academic grounding in Economics and Sociology, the years saw Ocampo making steady progress in her chosen career, marked by consecutive promotions. In no time, she was handling a division in CITEM.

       “I started with Corporate Planning and in a short while, I was promoted to Technical Assistant at the Office of the President and then after that, promoted again to Executive Assistant to then President Mina Gabor,” the CITEM chief said. 

EXPLORING NON-TRADITIONAL EXPORTS

Before Gabor left after the EDSA revolution, Ocampo bared that “She (Gabor) wanted me to start a new division in CITEM, which was to handle the food sector.” 

       Ocampo added that during that period, CITEM focused only on the furniture and fashion sectors, adding, “That was also the beginning of Manila FAME but there was no corresponding event for the food sector.” 

       That time, she said, CITEM was looking at exporting processed food as the export promotions arm was only into exporting “traditional products” or commodities such as rice, sugar, tobacco and minerals. 

       She then divulged that the late President Ferdinand Marcos prodded the export promotions group to look into “non-traditional” exports just like what the other countries within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region were doing. 

       The elder Marcos wanted the government to venture into alternative export industries, the CITEM executive director said.

       “Thailand was very much into handicrafts, Vietnam and Indonesia as well,” said Ocampo, recounting that the Philippines “was not doing that.” 

       Reliant on traditional export goods, Ocampo said the Philippines saw its export numbers shrink.  “We were just depending on the traditional exports. At that time, parang [it seemed that] our exports were declining,” she said.

TRADE EXHIBITIONS, MISSIONS

Looking back, it seems that the journey of CITEM began at a time when Philippine exports started to dwindle.

       Ocampo said that it was during that period when they discovered that with the right amount of creativity, excellence and innovation from its producers, the exporting of Philippine processed food and goods can make its mark on the global stage.

       “That’s the reason why he (Marcos Sr.) created CITEM. He wanted an agency that would focus on promoting our exports or non-traditional exports. So basically, that was the reason for being of CITEM,” said Ocampo.

       “He created it in order for an agency to focus on the promotion of non-traditional exports through different types of activities,” she noted. 

       These activities translated to the mounting of trade exhibitions in Manila, as well as international trade shows and business missions abroad.

       “We also did in-store promotions in big department stores in all the key cities of the world and then of course the world expos, all kinds of promotional tours,” Ocampo said.

       For over 40 years, CITEM has relentlessly helped shape the country’s image as the premier destination for quality export products and services.

       As stressed on its online platform: CITEM continues to set the highest standards of creativity, excellence, and innovation to achieve competitiveness in the home, fashion, lifestyle, food, creative, and sustainability sectors.