MANILA, July 17 — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has been pushing for its “Trabaho at Negosyo” (job creation and entrepreneurship) Agenda as the Duterte administration targets to achieve inclusive and equitable growth.
The “Trabaho at Negosyo” Agenda of DTI focuses in creating opportunities outside Metro Manila; reaching out to the farthest regions — home to those in the bottom of the pyramid.
The DTI has been aggressive in attracting investments to the Philippines.
DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez has accompanied President Rodrigo Duterte in his trips abroad, talking to his counterparts and engaging the world to enhance trade with the Philippines as well as increasing their investments in the country.
DTI listed 14 countries, which President Duterte visited and various economic deals were closed. These include ASEAN neighbors such as Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam; East Asian countries like China and Japan; Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar; and Russia.
Data from DTI showed that the Philippines signed a total of USD37 billion worth of business-to-business deals, USD18 billion worth of official development assistance (ODA), and USD4.3 billion worth of trade commitments.
In a previous interview, Lopez mentioned that the deals between the Philippines and China alone would create some two million jobs over the next five years.
The Philippines’ trade and investment deals with Japan are also expected to generate around 250,000 jobs.
It was also noted that foreign investors are eyeing to locate outside Metro Manila, particularly looking at the opportunities in Mindanao.
Moreover, investment approvals of the country’s leading investment promotion agencies (IPAs), the Board of Investments (BOI) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) — both under the DTI, reached over PHP700 billion from July 2016 to June 2017 based on figures reported by the IPAs.
Job generation in PEZA from July 2016 to April 2017 reached 73,043 while BOI-approved projects from July 2016 to mid-July 2017 are expected to generate over 80,000 jobs.
While creating jobs by attracting investments both from local and foreign sources, DTI also promotes entrepreneurial activities across the country by developing programs for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Among these initiatives to promote entrepreneurship in the country is the establishment of Negosyo Centers nationwide.
During the first year of the current administration, there were 261 Negosyo Centers established nationwide that assisted a total of 521,199 clients.
According to DTI, it conducted about 6,269 trainings and capacity building for MSMEs through SME Roving Academy, Philippine Trade Training Center, and Design Center of the Philippines with a total of 111,943 MSMEs participated in the said training since July last year.
To equip MSMEs with tools for them to increase their production and create quality products, DTI rolled out around 195 shared service facilities since July 2016.
DTI also partnered with mall operators in the country to host MSMEs products through Go Lokal! Stores that provided free space for MSMEs in mainstream market.
To improve access to finance, the Duterte administration allocated some Php1.0 billion this year for the Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso (P3) as microfinance. (Kris M. Crismundo/PNA)
