Iloilo City to open startup hub at Festive Walk

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

ILOILO CITY – Iloilo City is strengthening its support for entrepreneurship with the planned opening of a startup center that will give budding entrepreneurs a physical workspace for innovation, collaboration, and business development.

Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu said preparations are underway for the center, which will be established through a partnership among the city government, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

The center, expected to become operational within the next few months, will be located at Festive Walk Mall along Megaworld Boulevard in Iloilo Business Park, Mandurriao.

“We want our startups to have an office that they can go to, a co-working space. This is a venue for them that if they need to have a meeting or if they need to work, they have a place to go to,” Treñas-Chu said.

“What is good is that we have partnered now with business organizations and local groups to ensure that we can implement the programs,” she added.

Treñas-Chu said the startup center was conceived to address a gap in the support available to entrepreneurs after they complete entrepreneurship and startup programs offered by schools.

“We saw that schools are encouraging startups and they have programs for them, but after that, where do they go? That is why we created this startup center,” she said.

The center will also serve as a hub for innovation, collaboration, and mentoring, particularly for individuals and businesses in the early stages of their operations, she said.

She noted that DOST, DICT, and PCCI would help align the programs and services offered at the center with the needs of startups and with the city’s broader entrepreneurship and investment goals.

In June, the City Council passed the Iloilo City Comprehensive Technology-Based Startup Development and Incentives Ordinance.

The measure, authored by Councilor Rudolph Jeffrey Ganzon, chairperson of the Committee on Trade, Commerce and Industry, seeks to encourage the establishment, growth, and sustainability of qualified technology-based startups in the city through various forms of government support.

Among its key provisions are business permit discounts for qualified startups for up to five years, priority access to startup enablement initiatives backed by a PHP 3 million budget, and assistance in connecting startups with potential investors, business partners, and buyers.

The ordinance also provides for the establishment of an innovation hub that will serve aspiring founders and entrepreneurs.

Ganzon said the measure is intended to strengthen Iloilo City’s position as a hub for technology-driven entrepreneurship and innovation by creating a more supportive environment for innovators, researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors.

“Through this initiative, Iloilo City further strengthens collaboration among the government, academe, industry partners, investors, technology business incubators, and innovation enablers,” he said in June.

Ganzon said the city expects the program to contribute to job creation, research and development, digital transformation, and the commercialization of innovative products and services developed by local entrepreneurs.

The local ordinance operates alongside Republic Act 11337, or the Innovative Startup Act of 2019, which mandates DOST, DICT, and the Department of Trade and Industry to run the Philippine Startup Development Program and to provide grants, incentives, and startup visas.

Iloilo Business Park is a Megaworld Corporation township in Mandurriao that hosts several business process outsourcing locators, which the city government has cited as an anchor for its digital economy push.

Last year, Iloilo City ranked fifth among startup ecosystems in the Philippines and 744th globally in the 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Index of StartupBlink, a global startup ecosystem map and research center.