DTI INSTITUTIONALIZES DBFTA PROGRAM WITH UNIVERSITY AND INDUSTRY PARTNERS

The DTI thrust for 2012 is to strengthen the massive DBFTA awareness campaign, thus the Bureau of Export Trade Promotion and the Philippine Trade Training Center as implementing agencies are institutionalizing the project through collaboration with the academe and business organizations throughout the country. Partnering with educators and industry experts reinforces the DBFTA advocacy to entrepreneurs as they realize the benefits in doing business in free trade areas and prepare for the coming ASEAN integrated economy in 2015.

The tie-up with the academe began in November 2011 in De La Salle University with DTI Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal as the keynote speaker in the DBFTA session. In March 2012, DTI held the seminar successfully for the Visayas State University which was attended by scientists, professors, researchers, and business management students.

To sustain the positive results attained from the previous collaboration with DLSU and VSU, BETP and PTTC worked out to tie-up with other academic institutions in the Visayan region, hence, the conduct of DBFTA seminars on April 18 and 19, 2012 in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental dedicated to the academe in Silliman University and industry associations, specifically for the Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (NOCCI). The event was highlighted by the signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) between DTI and the two (2) institutions with BETP Director Senen Perlada and PTTC Executive Director Adelaida L. Inton as official representatives. Likewise, a press conference was held after the MOU signing with DTI Assistant Secretary Ramon Vicente Kabigting, BETP Senen Perlada, NOCCI officers, and Silliman University officials.

More than one hundred participants attended both sessions. In Silliman University (SU), the attendees were composed of nutritionist-dieticians, professors from SU and other Dumaguete universities, government representatives, and business administration students. The seminar elicited favorable remarks from the participants as they discovered that FTAs will produce great rewards for their province’s resources, mostly agricultural. As a result, the SU professors will be involved in the succeeding DBFTA regional sessions. DTI plans to conduct a Training of Trainers for SU in June 2012 providing the complete modules as lecture guides. However, Dir. Perlada stated that the academe is free to tweak the course design and to decide on the frequency of sessions as part of SU’s curriculum development.

The session for NOCCI was brought about by the concerns of Negros Oriental producers, mostly from the sugar industry, in the 2015 ASEAN Economic community. NOCCI wants entrepreneurs to take a serious look at penetrating markets within the free trade zones and to overcome the threat of 2015 by thinking of opportunities that they can sell anything to the global market.

One of NOCCI’s directors, Atty. Alejandro Florian Alcantara, provided a testimonial on how he conquered the Korean and Japanese markets using FTAS to sell the so-called poor man’s sugar, the “muscovado”. His presentation together with the resource speakers’ lectures enlightened other sugar producers that they can create by-products that are very much in demand overseas such as confectionery, lollipops, concentrates, etc.

NOCCI also requested DTI to host a focus group discussion with the sugar industry to gather inputs from planters, millers, and government counterparts on the next steps to undertake in preparation for ASEAN 2015.

Having seen the positive outlook of participants on FTA opportunities, DTI hopes to reach more universities and industry organizations for maximum dissemination of information.