On December 17-19, 2009, the DTI 7 family had a team building activity and Christmas party at the Bohol Divers' Resort in Panglao Island.
This is one of the rare DTI activities where I'm not holding the camera ---- what bliss and joy..
DTI Undersecretary for Regional Operations and Development Group Merly Cruz, in a press conference, said that they are aiming to increase sales during the OTOP Visayas Island Fair this year as they have more exhibitors compared to the previous year.
Cruz said that in the previous year, they only had around 105 exhibitors last year in which they were able to reap P27 million for the whole duration of the event.
She said that with this year’s 177 participating MSME’s from all over Visayas, they are hoping to increase what they have earned last year.
Cruz shared that through the years, they have noted increasing sales as more Micro, Small and Medium enterprises are participating and have improved the quality of products.
This goes for all the OTOP fairs in the country which has been actively promoted by DTI and the government in order to promote the development of MSME industries, to be able to gather more employment opportunities and help their respective regions and provinces promote their products.
The OTOP fair is a collaborative effort of all sectors in the society lead by their Local Government Units. DTI also assists the involved MSMEs in gathering help from other agencies such as the Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Tourism, and the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority.
DTI-7 Regional Director Aster Caberte said that they are very happy with the outcome of OTOP in Central Visayas. Caberte said that they have seen the growth in the region and the eagerness of the MSME to participate in their events. Caberte added that they have even had too many interested participants for this year. But Caberte said that this was a “pleasant problem” since this proves that more and more MSME players are seeing the need to develop their products and promote it to a larger market.
