DTI kicks off LRED program rollout

The Department of Trade and Industry- Cebu Provincial Office (DTI-CPO) has jumpstarted the implementation of the Local and Regional Economic Development (LRED) program to aid towns in the province bolster economic activities, amid the financial crunch.

DTI-CPO in partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development for Sustainable Employment Program (Smedsep) has started to roll-out this program to the local government of Lilo-an, with 77 stakeholders committed to join, 36 coming from the public sector and 41 from the private sector.

LRED is a process by which stakeholders from both public and private sectors as well as from the civil society are mobilized to become partners in a joint effort to improve the economy of a defined sub-national territory and thus increase its competitiveness.

It involves six steps which include; organization the local stakeholders; assessing the economic situation using the Rapid Economic Appraisal (REA) method; validation of the appraisal results; action planning, implementation and mentoring and re-planning.

In a statement, DTI announced that the local government in Lilo-an adopted the LRED as its approach in determining the concerns of the business sector and the civil society so that jointly, the concerns that will surface in the conduct of the LRED can be addressed.

As a result of the REA, some interventions were identified to address the issues and concerns.

The business sector in Lilo-an, is now in the process of forming a Local Business Association to ensure continuous dialogue between the LGU and the business community.

The streamlining of the Business Permit and Licensing System (BPLS) of the LGU will be looked into and the development of a micro, small and medium enterprise development program is being planned.

With the successful LRED in Liloan, — the SMEDSEP and DTI Cebu will conduct another LRED in other towns in Cebu province.

Next in line is the municipality of Argao. DTI-CPO targets to replicate similar process in other towns in Cebu in the next few months.

Smedsep is a technical cooperation project, between the Philippines the Federal Republic of Germany. This program aimed at addressing the challenges that SMEs are facing specifically in the third world countries, like the Philippines. – Ehda M. Dagooc