DTI ready to organize women entrepreneurs

By Cheneen R. Capon
THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 11 is targeting to organize all the women entrepreneurs in the Davao Region and tap them to participate in their programs for special sectors.
DTI 11 director Belinda Q. Ambi said organizing all the women in business will be done this year.
“We have a lot of women entrepreneurs right now but they are members of a bigger group like associations and cooperatives not specifically for women,” Ambi said during the stakeholders’ consultation at the Marco Polo Davao Wednesday.
She said there were already women organizations like the Tagum Women Council which has 15,000 women members, but not all provinces have their own council.
“I will be asking our provincial directors to assess their areas if there is an existing women organization which the agency can tap,” Ambi said.
Organizing women could empower them and at the same time provide them an avenue where DTI 11 can present its programs and activities, specifically women who form part of the marginalized sectors.
The trade and industry agency is allocating P6.5 million for special programs for the marginalized sector, with women as among the identified beneficiaries.
Other beneficiaries of special trainings, capability building and projects are people with disabilities (PWDs), youth and senior citizens.
Ambi said it will be easier to facilitate programs if there will be an organized women group in the region.
“As of now, we don’t have any mechanism to assess how many women entrepreneurs in the region but I assume there are a lot of them already,” she said.
Having an organized women group can also improve the facilitation of DTI’s program like the shared service facilities (SSFs) which aims to improve the production and make the output more value-added.
One of the applicants for SSF that raised their concern during the consultation is Tagum Women Council.
Rolda C. Labrador and Angelina Y. Maug of the women council are seeking approval from the agency for equipment that will help women members produce bamboo sticks.
“We have already identified our target market,” Labrador said, adding that MangInasal is planning to get its supply of barbeque sticks from the women council.
The DTI 11 regional office is still assessing the application of the group.