The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Samar provincial office opened on Monday the Go Negosyo Center in Calbayog City that will serve as a one-stop shop and interactive help desk for small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs).
The center is just one of the 50 facilities being targeted for opening by the DTI this year using the P92.7-billion funding for the Go Negosyo Centers.
Around 200 centers will operate next year, or 1,200 in the next five to seven years.
Calbayog’s Negosyo Center is within the city hall compound, where SMEs can do business without hopping from one office to another to secure the needed requirements.
DTI Provincial Director Meilo Macabare said during the launching program that Calbayog’s Go Negosyo Center will have the following functions: business-registration assistance, business-advisory services, business information and advocacy and monitoring and evaluation of business processes for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The facility, she added, will be linked soon to the Philippine Business Registry System (PBRS) to make it easier and faster for entrepreneurs to start and register their businesses at the local level.
The PBRS is a government project that integrates the services of all agencies involved in business registration, such as the DTI, Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Social Security System, Home Development Mutual Fund, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and other permit and license-issuing agencies to facilitate registration.
Aside from making business registration easier, Macabare also said the Go Negosyo Center will, likewise, provide other services to MSMEs, such as technology transfer, production and management training programs. Marketing assistance from the DTI, the Department of Science and Technology, University of the Philippines-Institute for Small-Scale Industries, Cooperative Development Authority, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and other agencies concerned are also available.
Mayor Ronaldo P. Aquino, who graced the launching of Calbayog Negosyo Center, thanked Sen. Bam Aquino for prioritizing the crafting of the law that presently puts up Negosyo Centers. Republic Act 10644, or the Go Negosyo Act, seeks to strengthen MSMEs to create more job opportunities in the country. This act was signed into law by President Aquino on July 15, 2014.
This establishment of Go Negosyo Center in Calbayog is strongly supported by the Greater Calbayog Chamber of Commerce and Industry.