CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Central Luzon assured entrepreneurs that it will continually aid them through various programs and projects aimed at achieving better economy for the region this year.
DTI OIC-Regional Director Leonila Baluyut said this year, one of the agency’s priority programs is to utilize virtual platforms for the conduct of various webinars.
“Right now, we need to capacitate our micro, small and medium enterprises especially that not all of them could go outside given the restrictions and safety protocols that we need to adhere to. Therefore, we will enhance the conduct of webinars for them,” Baluyut said.
She added that the agency would still pursue the establishment of Negosyo Centers (NC) in the different cities and municipalities within the region.
To date, DTI has established 113 NCs which are lodged in different local government units, malls, and chambers within the region. The agency eyes to establish 26 more this year.
Aside from NCs, DTI will still do Negosyo Serbisyo sa Barangay and Pangkabuhayan sa Pagbangon at Ginhawa livelihood seeding programs, One Town One Product Next Generation, and Bayanihan COVID-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises program wherein a total of PhP10 billion was allocated for the whole country to help pandemic-affected enterprises recover.
“We will also still do virtual trade fairs. In fact, we have been doing this since January and continue doing Diskwento Caravans and rolling stores to help generate more sales for our entrepreneurs,” she said.
The director added that aside from this, they are continuously monitoring the compliance of establishments to the DTI-Department of Labor and Employment Joint Memorandum Circular 20-04A or the supplemental guidelines on workplace prevention and control of COVID-19.
“Based on our data, compliance rate for 2020 is 87 percent. This decreased to 61 percent in January of this year. However, an increase to 72 percent was reported last month. We are continuously doing this monitoring and we are asking for the cooperation of everyone to ensure our health and safety,” Baluyut said.
Aside from the regular programs of DTI, she said that they also do policy formulation, including the ongoing revision of the Consumer Act of the Philippines; amending of the Price Act and Internet Transaction Act; and the policy issuances on COVID-19 for enterprises.
“Now, we are waiting for President Duterte to sign into law the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Law. This would mean cutting the corporate taxes or the corporate income tax, streamlining fiscal incentives; and easing coronavirus disease vaccine importation. In terms of purchasing vaccines, we haven’t had any request for assistance for that matter, but the DTI has been proactive in that through the CREATE Law,” she concluded.