Globally competitive

DOST seeks to assist SMEs in getting int'l accreditations

ASSISTING Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be globally-competitive through international accreditations is one of the initiatives that the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is currently working on.

According to Science and Technology secretary Fortunato dela Peña they had a talk with President Rodrigo Duterte who said that innovation should be pushed for collective prosperity. This is one of the three “I”s that the president is targeting to focus on for the country’s progress. The other two “I”s are infrastructure and interconnectivity.

Dela Peña added that DOST had helped SMEs in terms of their hardware and software needs to upgrade their quality and capacity for global competitiveness.

“We are embarking on what we call Set-Up 2.0 because we really want to go a step higher...We will also help the sector, not only in specific terms in becoming competitive but we will also try to get them recognized through international accreditation like our SMEs getting ISO accreditation already,” said dela Peña.

Aside from this, he said they are trying to work closely with universities and colleges doing research and development studies and pairing them up with concerned industries.

“We know that industries want and need research to solve problems and come up with innovations…We just want the academe and the industries to be connected, at least we can share that the universities and industry can collaborate,” he said adding that some of these existing collaborations have revolved around studies and research on agriculture, health, and drug discovery.

Just early this year, 20 food manufacturing companies in Davao City had applied for food safety certifications under the develoPPP.de Project, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program that aims to assist SMEs with the improvement of food safety standards.

These 20 companies have applied for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000).

The PPP program was primarily funded by the German firm Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in partnership with SIGNAsia and TUV-Nord Ltd. Philippines.

“The food safety standards in the Philippines are not that strong although there are a few companies that already have established safety standards. But there are SMEs that are not yet certified primarily because it is expensive. So the SMEs just go for local certification. The main objective of this program is to empower and include them, as well as give them the capacity to import with these global food safety standard certifications,” said SIGNAsia Project Manager April Theresa L. Diaz in an earlier interview.