DTI-7 gears up for anticipated rebound in 2010

The Department of Trade and Industry-7 is keyed up for the upcoming year seeing the much anticipated rebound of foreign countries hit by the global recession.

With the export sector being one of the drivers for Cebu ’s economy, DTI-7 Cebu Provincial Director Nelia Navarro shared that the crisis had a big impact on the export industry which lead to most companies stopping their operations or some permanently closing.

Navarro said that on the international trade market, the furniture and the fashion accessories industries have been the most dominant in the past years in terms of production.

But the furniture industry was the most affected when the economic turmoil struck since 70 percent of their production go to foreign countries.

Also, the electronic sector was also greatly affected with the crisis which had DTI and the Department of Labor and Employment boost up on their skills training seminars for workers of electronic companies that lost their jobs.

Navarro said that they also had to do crisis management seminars for the exporters in order for them to find means to cope with the problems brought about by the economic downturn.

However, the domestic trade market did better than the international trade market which Navarro credited to the very positive attitude of the locals despite the presence of problems.

She said that the business sector dealing with the local market have been very optimistic and found ways to increase their sales even though the people had tight fists on their budget.

This helped in the good result for the retail trade industry in which Navarro shared that she did not hear any complaints from the sector.

The real estate industry players as well played a big role in the boost of Cebu’s economy said that Navarro who reaped more clients this year as Overseas Filipino Workers and retirees opt to invest in real estate for their hard-earned money.

Despite the crisis, “ Cebu will always do well due to the people’s resiliency and optimism.”

Navarro also credited the growth of Cebu in time of the crisis to the entrepreneurs who did not give up and made the time to stop and think of how they could struggle out of the problem.

“They stopped, got out of the motion and thought of what is happening and they found a strategy instead of giving up.”

This is one of the reasons Navarro said that they are excited for 2010 since they know that the business sector and the community in general has surpassed a hard year and is ready for anything.

Navarro said that they encouraged the entrepreneurs to go back to their product development plans which include training their workers again and evaluating the kind of products that they are offering and what could be improved to serve the market better.

“We are excited because with the Cebuanos, creativeness is always present and this helps a lot,” added Navarro who shared that the creative sector is also doing very good because of this attribute.

She said that they are also eager with the performance of the province for the upcoming year since most of the big countries where products are going like the United States , Europe and Japan are already showing good signs of a rebound.

Also, they will be pushing forward with their activities and projects like boosting the tourism industry further as promoting Cebu as the premiere health and wellness destination which has been one of the advocacies of different sectors during this year. — AJ de la Torre