DTI shared facility project improves productivity, jobs

CEBU, Philippines - The shared service facilities in the production industry has brought notable results such as enterprise and job creation, high productivity and quality products that are helping the local economy rise, the Department of Trade and Industry-7 said.

The need to respond to the gaps in production is the department’s main reason of implementing the SSF projects to help local producers in their businesses, said Dr. Elias Tecson, DTI Cebu’s chief on business development division.

In fact, the DTI has turned over yesterday 10 Abaca Stripping Machines worth more than P5.7 million to a cooperative in Barangay Magsaysay in the municipality of Balamban.

The Barangay Unity Key to Integrated Development Multipurpose Cooperative (BUKID-MPC), one of the biggest abaca fiber suppliers in Cebu, is the first beneficiary of the government’s SSF program in the province, the chief said.

The association has 240 hectares of land planted with abaca and additional 150 hectares to be planted this year.

It also spends and takes care for the maintainance of the equipment, personal services, land improvement and other tools needed in the process.

Its members, other abaca farmers in nearby barangays of Magsaysay and abaca weavers and processors are the beneficiaries of the project which is also joined by the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority.

The machines that are made by Mandaue have been distributed to eight sitios of the barangay: Cambagokbok, Kalubihan, Liki, Manunggal, Potol, Sunog, Maoyog and Mount Mangga.

“In this project, we’re looking for a cooperative that has to be duly registered and it will be the beneficiary,” he told The FREEMAN, adding that the new 2014 SSF guidelines has said other non-government organizations, the academe and the local government unit can also now be an operator for the project.

Faster production

The machines, he further said, will help the members and workers of the BUKID-MPC increase their production and improve the abaca industry. It will also make employment and bigger revenues for the industry, he added.

The stripping machines will make the extraction of abaca fibers faster and more convenient, thus increasing also the making of fiber-made products such as “sinamay,” ropes, gift toys, woven fibers, christmas decors and housewares.

He said the task of the workers can become easy with the help of the machine instead of doing the manual process which is “more tedious and crude.”

“The demand of these products is really for export,” the trade official noted. “Only few is for domestic demand.”

The rise in demand and market for a product, abaca for instance, should also push for the improvement of the production and quality, he added.

In the next months, the trade department will also distribute SFFs to other areas in Cebu such as Carmen, Carcar, Sibonga, Minglanilla, Alegria, Aloguinsan and Toledo and identify the potential industry in the place.

Tecson said the machines to be granted are intended for the production of charcoal briquettes, virgin coconut oil, footwear, dessicated coconut, dried mangoes and other processed foods.

Choosing the beneficiary

The need of a group of local entrepreneurs is one of the bases to become a probabale beneficiary of the SSF. The department also sees the stability of the association whether it is duly registered.

“We also have to check the strength of the officers,” he said.

And the most important, Tecson stressed, is making sure the potential market for the industry to be helped: “Kung dying ang sector there’s no need kay there would be no market for that.”

The SSF project started just last year and in the past months the regional DTI first focused in the province of Bohol because of its small industry clusters, he chief explained.

This time, it will do more on giving the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Cebu a better and reliable technology and upgrading the skills of the members to become more competitive.