DTI pursues region-specific roadmaps

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is drafting roadmaps tailor-made to the needs of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in different regions across the country.

The localized roadmaps will allow industries in the different regions to align their respective targets and strategies with that of the national government while also significantly boosting the competitiveness of MSMEs.

The DTI has already began conducting various meetings with businessmen, local governments and agencies, the latest of which was held on Friday in La Union. This forum alone gathered over 300 stakeholders from the Ilocos region.

“The forum aims to contribute to building capacities of our local industries and small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to take advantage of opportunities in the Asean Economic Community (AEC) and the European Generalized System of Preferences Plus (EU-GSP+),” Trade Assistant Secretary Rafaelita Aldaba said in a statement.

The AEC converges in one single market all goods, services and investments arising from 10 Asean member countries. Meanwhile, the EU-GSP+ grants zero tariff to more than 6,000 products exported by the Philippines to any of the European Union’s member states.

“We must seize opportunities with government working in coordination with industry and academe to enable the regions to craft their own industry cluster roadmaps. These industry cluster roadmaps will allow MSMEs to move up the value chain and facilitate the link between agriculture, manufacturing, and services,” Aldaba said.

“This conference was a perfect venue for us to work together to address the challenges and opportunities our own industry clusters face. The alignment of regional industry roadmaps and national strategies would allow us to take advantage of the country’s expanded market access,” added DTI regional director for Ilocos Florante Leal.

In the last three years, the Ilocos region’s economy ranked eighth in terms of its contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The region contributed 3.09 percent to the country’s GDP in 2013 and was the country’s number one producer of mango and milkfish in that same year.

“Local industry roadmaps would define our vision, goals, and targets initially for cacao, coffee, mango, and processed meat and fish industries,“ Leal said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us as we identify binding constraints to growth and recommend strategies for industry upgrading and development.”