The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) CALABARZON Region will help micro, small and medium enterprises develop their products to make it more marketable through the One Town, One Product (OTOP) program.
“For this year, DTI 4-A targets to assist 375 MSMEs under the program, 130 of which will be enrolled in Product Development and the remaining 245 will be capacitated through various training sessions and seminars. We want to encourage our MSMEs to innovate and to be more competitive in terms of quality, design, packaging/labeling, marketability, branding, and production and delivery capacity to be able to create more jobs and to stimulate both the local and international trade,” said DTI CALABARZON Director Marilou Toledo.
DTI 4-A conducted a Regional Orientation for the OTOP program’s Assessment, Consultation, and Triage (ACT) session held at the Hotel Marciano in Calamba City, Laguna on 10 April 2018 to DTI 4-A staff, commissioned designers, food experts, and brand consultants to ensure a uniform execution of the ACT sessions in the provinces and calibrate the various directions for the region.
OTOP Philippines is a priority stimulus program for Micro and Small and Medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) as government’s customized intervention to drive inclusive local economic growth. The program enables localities and communities to determine, develop, support, and promote culturally-rooted products or services where they can be the best at or best renowned for.
Assistant Secretary Demphna Du-Naga of DTI Regional Operations Group encouraged the MSMEs to aspire competing with the best in the world.”
“DTI is providing market access opportunities such as trade fairs, Go Lokal!, and now the OTOP Philippines Hub where the best of our local products can be found. It is important that we open our minds and hearts – innovate and modernize in terms of design, learn from our customers, and seek ways to scale up so we can meet the demands of the market,” said Du-Naga.
“OTOP is a strategic program to build pride of place and for localities to focus on products that they can be the best at. We encourage the private sector and the local government units to take their OTOP seriously so we can build enterprises and generate more jobs. In 2017, the program was able to assist 6,519 MSMEs and develop and improve 4,960 products all over the country. We hope to do more this year.”♦
Date of release: 12 April 2018