DAGUPAN CITY — Eight micro small and medium enterprise (MSMEs) organizations in the province will soon receive production and research equipment from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under its Shared Service Facility (SSF) program.
DTI Pangasinan Business Development division chief Natalia Dalaten, in an interview on Monday, said the facilities, which carry a combined value of PHP9.8 million, are being funded by the central office.
She explained that the equipment will be used mainly in food processing as well as in food safety operations. She added that they cost between PHP500,000 to PHP2.8 million.
Dalaten disclosed that the MSMEs beneficiaries are from Mangaldan (cacao processing); Binmaley (fish processing); Dagupan City (glass freezer/ milkfish processing); Alaminos City (engineered bamboo processing); two from Sual (fish processing and tools/equipment for honey processing); Pangasinan State University-Sta. Maria (laboratory equipment); and Pangasinan State University-San Carlos City (laboratory equipment).
“The Regional Technical Working Group has already approved these eight facilities, to be followed by purchase request, and then it will be published at Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System for bidding, before it will be released to the beneficiaries,” she said.
Under the SSF program, the equipment will remain under the ownership of the DTI until the MSME beneficiaries have proven that they can put them to good use, upon which the DTI turns over full ownership to them in the form of a donation, said Dalaten.
She added that the group’s counterpart in the project is a building or a place where the facility can be safely placed.
“SSF can be availed by a registered organization, cooperative, local government unit and academe. But I advised them to submit intention letter with list and costing of their requested facility earlier because processing takes a year,” Dalaten said.
A total of 39 SSF equipment have been turned over to different groups in the province in 2015 and 2016, while there were no approved requests last year, said Dalaten. (Hilda Austria/PNA)
