THE Davao Industry Cluster Capacity Enhancement Project (DICCEP), a two-and-a-half year project initiated by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 11 with the support of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has officially taken off last month.
Trade and Industry Assistant Secretary Merly M. Cruz met with the projects Chief Advisor Tetsuo Inooka and JICAs Project Formulation Advisor Akira Goto early last month to discuss the various activities that will be considered as the project starts.
DICCEP is a pilot project which is intended to complement the efforts in line with the Industry Cluster development strategy that the partner agencies in Davao Region are undertaking.
Under this strategy, seven industry clusters were initially prioritized, namely: coconut, seaweed, mango, banana, wood, mining, and eco-tourism. The development of these seven priority clusters are being pursued by concerned government agencies together with the private sector.
Its worth noting that these industries were chosen on the bases of their comparative advantage as far as the region is concerned. As cited, their relative strengths are on the following areas: availability of raw materials, market potentials, opportunity for growth and expansion, presence of existing core enterprises, capacity to absorb and/or create employment opportunities, and, the like.
Moreover, corresponding Industry Cluster teams were formed. These teams, comprise of industry leaders, agency stakeholders, academe representatives and local officials, are expected to enhance the development road map for the cluster and facilitate its actualization.
The teams initiatives will revolve around the three Cs toward development – coordination, collaboration, and cooperation.
Cruz said the DICCEP, as designed, hopes to capacitate and strengthen the teams as a cohesive group, as well as the individual members, so that they can effectively facilitate the delivery of the support that the industries require.
Furthermore, the project hopes to replicate and harmonize the best practices of the stakeholders in order to uplift the status of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with the help of the local government units (LGUs).
The project intends to showcase the true spirit of convergence that we have been working on so hard – since, we believe that only in putting our acts together , in our collective will we can make change happen, Cruz concluded.
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