BAGUIO CITY (PIA) -- The Department of Trade and Industry - Cordillera (DTI-CAR) will be assisting more than 21,000 Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the region.
DTI-CAR Regional Director Juliet Lucas said that this is their baseline data for assistances as provided by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Based on the 2021 data of the PSA-CAR, there are 22,493 MSMEs in Cordillera of which 21,195 are micro, 1,270 are small, and 28 are medium enterprises.
"70% of the assistance that we will be giving for MSMEs will be to our industry cluster focus at iyan din ay relative din sa direksyon ng ating current administration which is agri-business and tourism," Lucas explained during the Kapihan sa Baguio on October 4.
Among their industry cluster focus are coffee, cacao, bamboo, processed fruits and nuts, raw materials-based processed foods including weaved products, furniture, and souvenir items.
The DTI-CAR is providing assistance such as investment promotion to give businesses ideals and models that they can refer to, in product development, among others.
Lucas mentioned that the MSME sector has not fully recovered yet from the pandemic but MSMEs have adapted with new strategies and now embracing digitalization.
"As they said, it will take time and that will be realized by 2024. That is in terms of measures that we are doing sa economy. But as to the behavior, the strategies, naiba na po. We have a different situation now and we have adapted new strategies. We have now come to the innovation age and that is what we are rooting for. We are now embracing what we call digitalization," Lucas said.
Meanwhile, PSA-CAR Statistician Nico Pagaduan reported that there is an increase in the number of MSMEs in the region by 10.2% from the 20,418 MSMEs recorded in 2018.
There is a decrease of total employment of MSMEs by 9.3% in 2021 or 80,527 from 88,753 recorded in 2018, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the country in 2020, he added.
The PSA-CAR is conducting another Updating of the List of Establishments which will be released in 2023. (JDP/DEG-PIA CAR)
