By
Emmanuel D. Taghoy
IPIL, Zamboanga Sibugay – A two-day industry-wide assessment and planning workshop for
the six champion products of Zamboanga
Peninsula (ZamPen) has been conducted
here starting yesterday at the Casa Mea Hotel by the Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI)-9.
In a press release issued
to the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Dr. Sitti Amina Jain,
officer-in-charge of DTI-9 said: “We need to regularly assess where each
industry is now relative to where it was when the Regional Development Council
(RDC)-9 first identified them as champion products way back in 2005. Assessment
is necessary because we want to keep tract of the growth of the industry and if
such growth is a result of our interventions.”
The champion products Dr.
Jain referred to are seaweeds, mango, rubber, coconut, and processed fish.
Abaca was later added in the list through an RDC resolution in 2011.
Participants of the
activity were from Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA) for Abaca
products, Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) for Coconut products, Department
of Trade and Industry (DTI) for Fish Processed Products, Department of
Agriculture (DA) for Mango and Rubber products and Bureau of Fisheries and
Aquatic Resources for Seaweed products.
The objectives of the
assessment and planning workshop are: to assess and evaluate the implementation
of the industry cluster program in 2013; and to formulate strategies to better
integrate and harmonize convergence activities of concerned government and
support institutions to the cluster plan.
“At
the end of the two-day session, we should be able to come up with the 2014
action plan for each industry that already integrate each agency’s
interventions and which are duly validated by the private sector
representatives of said industries,” Dr. Jain said. (PIA9)