LA TRINIDAD – Some 450 entrepreneurs in the various barangays here recently attended a livelihood summit to boost their entrepreneurial knowledge and skills in doing business.
Spearheaded by the City Social Welfare and Development Office(CSWDO) in coordination with the Department of Trade and Industry, the summit was a venue for the participants to gather insights and learnings from experts on increasing productivity, entrepreneurship, development of enterprise competencies, marketing and promotions of their craft in the scope of engaging into business.
Most of the participants are CSWDO clients who are into food processing, novelty item production, weaving, knitting, rug making, wood carving among other business endeavors, according to CSWDO Program Division Chief Liza Bulayungan.
Social Welfare Officer III Florecita Tul-an discussed self-employment assistance program of the CSWDO while Augusto Aquillo of the Department of Labor and Employment lectured on increasing productivity.
Edmund Benavidez of the Saint Louis University – Extension Institute for Small Scale Industries Foundation, Inc. tackled developing enterprise competencies.
Michael del Rosario, proprietor of Sunshine Supermart and Mc Donald’s Baguio franchisee discussed entrepreneurship sharing his humble beginnings as an entrepreneur.
In a plenary workshop, participants identified status of the trainings and other assistance extended by partners, the gaps and challenges and how to address such.
Among the gaps identified were lack of resources such as time, need of assistance in the establishment of livelihood centers; lack of social preparation such as attitude of members for those who were organized and lack of cooperation among members; lack of marketing strategies; and non-functional barangay livelihood committee.
In boosting the marketing of their produce, identified as interventions include establishment of a pasalubong center, conduct of barangay or city bazaar and promotion of the products.
Capability building, strengthening of livelihood committee within the barangay and support from barangay officials are the other means identified to address their concerns.
One of the objectives of the summit is to strengthen the partnership of national agencies, the local government unit and the private sector thru the implementation of the Bottoms Up Budgeting which empowers the stakeholders in identifying their needs./JDP/SCA-PIA CAR, Benguet