Pasay – During his recent (5 December) keynote speech during the inaugural National Shared Service Facility (SSF) Summit, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez urged over 170 cooperators all over the Philippines to scale up their production and ride on the increasing manufacturing industry growth in the country.
Trade Secretary Lopez shared that the government’s SSF Project is the key towards boosting rural development and promoting inclusive growth throughout the country, especially for those at the bottom of the pyramid.
“As DTI provides increased capabilities to the cooperators in the regions, the next challenge is how to help their businesses grow and achieve bigger targets,” said the trade chief.
A major component of the government’s program to develop Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is the SSF Project, which aims to improve the competitiveness of MSMEs by providing them with machinery, equipment, tools, systems, skills, and knowledge under a shared system.
This project is spearheaded by DTI together with project partners termed as Cooperators, which includes non-government organizations, people’s organizations, cooperatives, industry/ trade/ business associations, local government units (LGUs), state universities/colleges technical vocational schools and other similar government and training institutions.
Four years since the creation of the SSF Project, DTI has successfully established a total of 2,186 SSFs nationwide while bridging technology and business, and improving greater productivity in the regions. To date, the SSF project has served more than 215,600 beneficiaries and generating more than 111,700 jobs.
Sec. Lopez emphasized the importance of SSF in increasing production efficiency, and introducing new ways of manufacturing while also assuring quality consistency in production.
“A convention like this brings together cooperators all over the country, where they can share best practices for further development,” he said during the national summit.
Aside from supporting MSMEs with shared service facilities, DTI also provides them access to money and markets, free mentorship and trainings, and models of negosyo (or business) as part of its 7Ms strategy for MSME development.
“DTI is committed in creating a new wave of smarter entrepreneurs. As such, we urge businesses and cooperators to develop highly differentiated products in the market,” he concluded, highlighting the importance of continue innovation to grow businesses and level-up business models
