DTI: No better time for business than now

Regional Director Asteria Caberte (center) of the Department of Trade and Industry discusses the Trabaho, Negosyo at Kabuhayan Fair in a press briefing in Cebu City.
contributed

Trade officials have urged anew aspiring business owners to take advantage of present opportunities as the government continues to roll out programs for entrepreneurial development.

Ma. Elena Arbon, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Cebu provincial director, said many good things in the business community are happening now.

“There’s really a good mood for business, business confidence is up, the time is now,” she said during a press conference in Cebu City for the Trabaho, Negosyo, at Kabuhayan (TNK) Fair on Thursday.

The DTI, in partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas (DOLE-7), will mount a one-day trade and job fair at the Cebu City Sports Center on Monday, June 12.

Arbon said the trade department will hold free seminars on free trade laws, retail trade management, financial literacy, and business model canvass, which all target existing and aspiring entrepreneurs.

The event is in line with the government’s priorities such as decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME), and raising industry’s share in employment and gross domestic product.

By 2022, the government plans to achieve full employment at 5 percent rate by creating 7.5 million more jobs mainly in sectors like manufacturing, construction, tourism, IT-BPM, transportation and logistics, as well as retail trade.

Arbon pointed out that her office has noticed a spike in businesses that have been registered in the province.

Business name registration (BNR) in Cebu province went up by 4.28 percent in 2016 credited mostly to the opening of Negosyo Centers in the countryside.

DTI data showed that 15,588 business names were registered from January to December last year while only 14,920 were logged by the agency for the same period in 2015.

The agency will mount a mini-Negosyo Center at the fair, where the public can avail services such as BNR and business counseling.

Arbon said the DTI will continue having “an ear on the ground,” listening to what communities and various sectors need as well as coming up with programs relevant to those needs.

DTI Central Visayas director Asteria Caberte, for her part, said she has felt “very high energy” within the entrepreneurial community in the region.

She added that there has been hype created for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial development, starting with the launch of the second batch of DTI’s Kapatid Mentor Me program this year, the development of a start-up ecosystem in Cebu, and the e-commerce push.