DTI to help entrepreneurs in poor barangays

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is reaching out to underserved communities and helping them develop small businesses that, in turn, will create more than 500,000 new jobs by 2022.

The DTI said in a statement on Friday that it launched the Negosyo Serbisyo sa Barangay (NSB) Program, which wants barangays in the 4th, 5th and 6th income classification municipalities in the country to experience ease in doing business.

The program wants to have a more inclusive development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) as it aims to empower entrepreneurs in barangays to scale up their operations.

Its strategic objectives include promoting the services of DTI’s Negosyo Centers, identifying MSMEs operating within barangays and conducting business development assistance and services in the identified communities.

The program also intends to develop 200,000 new enterprises that are expected to provide more than half a million new jobs by 2022 in support of DTI’s goals under the MSME Development Plan 2017-2022,” the statement said.

The DTI said that the NSB Program would expand and complement DTI’s Negosyo Centers, which provide various services to MSMEs such as business registration assistance and advisories on product development.

There were only five Negosyo Centers when the Negosyo Center Program was launched in 2014. As of June 30 this year, that figure has reached 1,701.

For 2019, DTI’s regional and provincial offices already started conducting NSB Program orientation and other related activities in their communities.

To date, the DTI field offices have conducted NSB Program sessions covering 589 barangays and gathered 28,199 participants.

Aside from trainings and seminars, regional offices, through the NSB Program, also see the possibility of creating NSB Desks in Barangay town halls where potential and existing entrepreneurs have a more convenient avenue to seek assistance in doing business.