Trade dep't renews call for green biz operations

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry Cebu Provincial Office (DTI-CPO) has reiterated its call to encourage the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to embrace the implementation of green operation in their respective companies.

DTI-CPO director Nelia F. Navarro said that Cebu is poised to implement programs together with the private sector like the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) to push green economic growth.

Now that environment consciousness is widely popular, investments in adopting green operations within companies are said to be already affordable, unlike in the past when environment-friendly technologies and programs were quite expensive.

DTI-7 regional director Asteria Caberte urged specifically the Cebuano retailers to reinforce their support on greening the economy.

Caberte re-introduced the agency's "Project Bayong," a job-generating activity which aims to develop abundant local raw materials and existing skills in the countryside into a product which has potential demand for both local and export markets.

Meanwhile, the DTI is now working with the German-funded project, through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), to implement the "Promotion for Green Economic Development (ProGED), which vowed to link Cebu and Bohol MSMEs to the ample institutions that provide financing access to green-related projects.

Ealier, GIZ ProGED project manager Volker Steigerwald said that the project, which was recently launched, has identified beneficiaries of the three-year project  and these companies will be matched with different financial institutions that are offering assistance for companies implementing green operations.

"We'd like to link up MSMEs with all these green financing institutions; there are many of them but are not known. Internally, there are also other financial institutions that are willing to finance and support green initiatives," said Steigerwald.

In Cebu, the project, which got an allocation of three million Euro from Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), identified the health and wellness sector as the primary beneficiary and in Bohol, its eco-tourism.

In spite of the threat of climate change and environmental stress, ProGED looks at green economic development as a driver for competitiveness, innovation, new markets and jobs which will contribute to inclusive growth and poverty reduction.

According to Steigerwald the project will focus on three important dimensions in shifting the economic system away from carbon footprint-in massive information awareness, business matching/facilitation and providing green framework activities.

The project, which is in partnership with the Philippine government through the DTI, aims to pursue its objective along these three intervention lines, and will build on gains and experiences of the previous program jointly implemented by GIZ and DTI which ended last December 2012, the Private Sector Promotion (Smedsep) program.

Steigerwald said the chances of the Philippines to lead in the green economic transformation are very high, considering its good economic performance.    

"We use this opportunity [economy doing very well in the Philippines] as a step to improve competitiveness among MSMEs. The Philippines being seen to be the next economic tiger in Asia in five years, can learn from Germany in terms of adopting green economic development," said Steigerwald.

 Adopting green operation, Steigerwald said, is not just to "save the earth," but also a "business case" for MSMEs to be competitive and profitable.

In Germany for instance, investors are asking for sustainability initiatives of the Philippines. The implementation of ProGED will complement the upswing economic performance and positive impression of international investors to the Philippines, the German executive said.  /JMD (FREEMAN)