Davao City – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Region 11 has continued with the review of its existing Shared Service Facilities (SSF) projects to ensure that such is still productive and being maximized by the respective cooperators. 

The SSF, a flagship program of the agency, has already implemented a total of 215 projects in Davao region since its inception in 2013. These are scattered in the different parts of the region. 

DTI 11 Regional Director (RD) Maria Belenda Q. Ambi said that the program is aimed at improving the productivity and efficiency of small enterprises by giving them access to better technology and equipment. “The facilities should help the target beneficiaries increase their production capacities and improve the quality of their products. Hence, the SSF projects accorded to them are expected to, result in increased markets and sales, as well as job generation,” Ambi shared. 

An SSF Project is provided to an eligible cooperator, which must be willing to make the SSF accessible to MSMEs and other users.  The cooperator could be a government or a private entity.  The government cooperator may be a local government unit (LGU), national government agency (NGA), state university or college (SUC) or a technical school and other government training/ research institution while a private entity can be a non-government organization (NGO), people’s organization, cooperative, or industry trade/ business association. Certain parameters are considered to become eligible cooperators before they are granted the chance to become DTI’s partners in carrying out the SSF program’s mandate. 

Ambi further clarified that the facilities are not given to the cooperators, but are only provided to them with the legal rights to use the DTI-SSF machines and equipment for the use of MSME beneficiaries under a usufruct agreement. The term is two years and thereafter, the DTI may grant the ownership of the SSF to the cooperator by way of a donation if it passes the criteria set for evaluating the project’s success. 

Prior to the awarding of the identified SSF projects, DTI holds technical skills training for the cooperators to improve their competitiveness and optimize the opportunities that the technology or equipment would come with. One of the most recently conducted training interventions was with Google my Business on 1 March 2022 wherein 45 beneficiaries attended. 

In the meantime, Ambi emphasized that the Technical Working Group’s (TWG) review of the existing SSF projects is crucial since this will help the agency in crafting the most necessary steps to continuously achieve the objectives. She noted that this will evaluate projects with expired usufruct agreement.  

“This usufruct agreement with the cooperators states that they can use the facilities or equipment as long as they preserve those. Otherwise, we have to retrieve and look for more qualified cooperators,” Ambi said, adding that those who fail to do their part, as stipulated in the agreement, will have to relinquish the SSF projects for transfer to others.  

On 28 April 2022, the TWG evaluated 40 SSF projects. The team carefully studied the status of each project and assessed the projects for possible transfer of ownership to the cooperator by way of a donation based on the criteria set by the program.  

Of the 215 SSF projects in the region, 102 projects were already donated to the cooperator.  

“The transfer was made after a thorough evaluation and deliberation. We want our local enterprises to benefit from the program, so we see the regular review as a highly important component in ensuring that the facilities are maximized and optimized,” Ambi said. 

“The SSF program has already witnessed the success of various beneficiaries in the cacao industries.  

FARDECO in Davao City was granted a Multipurpose Pulverizing Machine, Butterfat Extractor, Upright Freezer, Grinder, Dehydrator, it increased their productivity from 500 to 1000 pieces of tableya per production load thereby resulting to increase of their sales” she bared. 

The DTI 11 is optimistic that more success stories will be documented in the coming days as a result of the SSF program. ♦

Date of Release: 12 May 2022