Technology innovation to boost productivity and competitiveness

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are encouraged to adopt technology innovations to improve their operations, and enhance their productivity and competitiveness.

During a
General Membership Meeting of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. Rowena
Cristina Guevara, undersecretary for research and development at the Department
of Science and Technology (DOST), said the Small Enterprise Technology
Upgrading Program (Setup)
provides science and technology (S&T) assistance for these companies.

“This is
a way that the DOST helps MSMEs all over the country. We have many ways of
helping you. We can help you by technology transfer, we all help you through
scientific and technological services, market support [and development], and we
have the SETUP innovation fund,” she said. Guevara cited as an example the DOST
doing technology needs assessment for companies. She said it has programs on
cleaner production and food safety, and manufacturing productivity extension
for export industry modernization comprising of plant layout; time and motion
studies; waste management; and production planning.

“We also
do packaging and labeling assistance…we can package all sorts of things. For
example, one of our packaging is for durian. If you remove durian from its
outer cover, it smells so bad that for some people, it’s very difficult to
transfer. We have a packaging, when you put durian there, you won’t smell
anything. So those are the things our packaging group is doing,” she said.

Guevara said priority sector distribution of SETUP projects
include food processing; furniture; Agriculture/aquaculture/forestry; gifts,
décors and handicrafts; metals and engineering; information communications
technology; health; and regional priorities.

She said the program also assists adaptors to
showcase their products online if these qualify. OneSTore helps the MSMEs
expand their customer reach and increase brand awareness, she added. Guevara
said there are 12,320 Filipino products available online, and already P188.54
million worth of local products were sold through oneSTore hubs.

To improve the ease of doing business, she
said a network of laboratories known as OneLab was organized and an
information-technology solution was developed—the Laboratory Online Referral
System, Guevara said.

OneLab aims to provide convenient, and easy,
access to laboratory testing and calibration services, thus meeting customers
need at a single touch point.

“The online referral system allows for
seamless handling of samples from receiving, referral, transport, analysis to
prompt delivery of test and calibration results no matter where the customers
are in the country,” she added.

Guevara said they are expanding OneLab in other
countries, like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Australia. She said OneExpert,
on the other hand, is an interactive Web-based nationwide pool of S&T
experts intended to provide technical advice and consultancy services to
Filipinos anywhere they are in the Philippines. “[This is] intended to improve
access to experts and technologies, particularly by people living outside of
the major urban centers where most research and technical institutions are
located,” she added.