DTI-7 to bolster programs this year

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry Central Visayas office aims to continue implementing its programs and projects this year after the global economic crisis has left a lot of industries affected.

DTI-7 Cebu Provincial Director Nelia Navarro shared that there are a lot of frontline activities in 2009 that will still be strengthened this year by the department.

This including the Small and Medium Enterprise Development for Sustainable Employment Program which would be on its third phase said Navarro.

SMEDSEP is a development cooperation project between the Philippines and the Federal Republic of Germany, which aims to improve the Business and Investment opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises in the country, especially in the Visayas.

The project is made through DTI and the German Technical Cooperation, which is an international company that focuses on sustainable development with worldwide operations owned by the German Government. GTZ has been aiding partner countries in different aspects such as economic and social development.

With plans in hand, Navarro said that sectoral competitiveness would be strengthened and would mean an intensified local and regional planning that would encourage strong and hand-in-hand participation from all members of the community.

Also, Navarro said that they will also be continuing with the Local and Regional Economic Development planning tool that focuses on clustering of different towns or municipalities in order to interest the local government units to improve their respective economies.

Navarro said that different towns in the South have undergone the LRED training and would be clustered accordingly like towns from Argao to Rhonda.

She said that there are two towns in between who have not gone through the training but they are hoping to have them participate so that they would be able to see as well the benefits the program would do to their municipalities and their residents most especially.

Navarro added that they are also looking forward in promoting more the tourism in different towns since there are a lot more that could be shown.

“Tourism image down there is very strong,” said Navarro who shared that Tourism is definitely a big part of their plans this year as more are being involved and interested in tourism especially with the efforts of the health and wellness industry. —AJ de la Torre