Nabunturan, Davao de Oro – The Negosyo Centers located in each of the 11 municipalities in the province have continued to support the existing and would-be local entrepreneurs.
The 11 facilities, which are operated by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Davao de Oro Provincial Office together with the concerned local government units (LGUs), have been extending different types of assistance to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) within their respective areas of operation. The interventions include relevant training programs and seminars, business counseling, product development, business registration, marketing, and financing facilitation.
From January to August this year, these Negosyo Centers have already conducted a total of 40 training activities and seminars. The topics ranged from product development and labeling to marketing and promotion. These have already benefitted a total of 350 MSMEs.
Apart from these free capacity-building and skills improvement interventions, the Negosyo Centers, through the in-house business counsellors, have also been guiding their clients on how to go about with the registration process.
DTI-Davao de Oro Provincial Director Lucky Siegfred M. Balleque said that the staff assigned at the Negosyo Centers have undergone several training interventions themselves. These have prepared them in handling their job as well as in meeting the MSMEs’ needs.
“With our Negosyo Centers scattered throughout the province, it has become easier for us in DTI to reach more clients. At the same time, those who live in the far-flung barangays, where transportation access is limited, can visit the facility more conveniently,” the provincial trade official said.
Among the latest training activities conducted by the Negosyo Centers in the province were on meat processing, which was participated by 30 potential and existing MSMEs of Compostela; home-based mushroom production for the group of persons with disability (PWDs) in Maragusan; and marketing of products under the One Town, One Product (OTOP) program, which are sold at the resorts’ pasalubong centers.
“In planning the training and seminars that we conduct through our Negosyo Centers, we make sure that we get to unleash several opportunities, including the generation of jobs for the locales. With our training for the pasalubong centers, for example, we heed to the tourism industry’s call to develop and promote local products in various tourism sites and destinations,” Balleque shared, adding that DTI-Davao de Oro, through its 11 Negosyo Centers, has been doing its best to be responsive to the needs of their clients while finding new opportunities for them.
In 2020, the Negosyo Centers in Davao de Oro were able to assist 3,482 MSMEs. ♦
Date of Release: 30 September 2021