Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are encouraged to adopt technology innovations to improve their operations, and enhance their productivity and competitiveness.
During a General Membership Meeting of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. Rowena Cristina Guevara, undersecretary for research and development at the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), said the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (Setup) provides science and technology (S&T) assistance for these companies.
“This is a way that the DOST helps MSMEs all over the country. We have many ways of helping you. We can help you by technology transfer, we all help you through scientific and technological services, market support [and development], and we have the SETUP innovation fund,” she said. Guevara cited as an example the DOST doing technology needs assessment for companies. She said it has programs on cleaner production and food safety, and manufacturing productivity extension for export industry modernization comprising of plant layout; time and motion studies; waste management; and production planning.
“We also do packaging and labeling assistance…we can package all sorts of things. For example, one of our packaging is for durian. If you remove durian from its outer cover, it smells so bad that for some people, it’s very difficult to transfer. We have a packaging, when you put durian there, you won’t smell anything. So those are the things our packaging group is doing,” she said.
Guevara said priority sector distribution of SETUP projects include food processing; furniture; Agriculture/aquaculture/forestry; gifts, décors and handicrafts; metals and engineering; information communications technology; health; and regional priorities.
She said the program also assists adaptors to showcase their products online if these qualify. OneSTore helps the MSMEs expand their customer reach and increase brand awareness, she added. Guevara said there are 12,320 Filipino products available online, and already P188.54 million worth of local products were sold through oneSTore hubs.
To improve the ease of doing business, she said a network of laboratories known as OneLab was organized and an information-technology solution was developed—the Laboratory Online Referral System, Guevara said.
OneLab aims to provide convenient, and easy, access to laboratory testing and calibration services, thus meeting customers need at a single touch point.
“The online referral system allows for seamless handling of samples from receiving, referral, transport, analysis to prompt delivery of test and calibration results no matter where the customers are in the country,” she added.
Guevara said they are expanding OneLab in other countries, like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Australia. She said OneExpert, on the other hand, is an interactive Web-based nationwide pool of S&T experts intended to provide technical advice and consultancy services to Filipinos anywhere they are in the Philippines. “[This is] intended to improve access to experts and technologies, particularly by people living outside of the major urban centers where most research and technical institutions are located,” she added.