Senator Bam Aquino lauded the Department of Trade and Industry’s approval of six shared service facilities (SSF) worth P2 million in Davao del Sur, which are meant to boost the production of coco vinegar, kakanin, coco shellcraft, muscovado sugar, as well as cacao beans fermentation and coco coir processing.

“Our farmers and agri-entrepreneurs need a lot of support,” said Sen. Aquino, “and the SSFs can provide that much-needed push for them to boost production, improve their quality, and even create additional income through off-farm activities.”

“We congratulate the DTI for this project, and we hope that more SSFs can be built in more strategic locations throughout the Philippine countryside,” the senator added.

The DTI has a total of P700 million allocated for the SSF program, under which facilities may be shared by beneficiaries such as cooperatives, institutions, and communities. The DTI likewise hopes that more micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) will avail themselves of this program.

Aside from the six SSFs in Davao del Sur, three more project proposals “are targeted to be approved before the 2013 ends,” according to the DTI.

According to DTI-DS officer-in-charge Eulogio Orevillo, “It is our hope that [entrepreneurs and agricultural cooperatives] will improve their business especially in terms of profit by increasing their production volume and enhancing product quality. These we can easily achieve with the help of the SSFs.”

“The SSFs are one concrete–and, we hope, effective–way of supporting our farmers and agri-entrepreneurs, but we really need to push for rural development and more investments in the Philippine countryside,” Sen. Aquino pointed out. “Poverty is most severe in the rural areas, and we need more government interventions and PPPs (public-private partnerships) here to generate jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities for our people.”

Photo source: Mindanews.com