AS PART of its mission to help strengthen the capabilities of business support organizations (BSOs) in the country,
the Private Enterprise Accelerated Resource Linkage Project (Pearl) 2 has conducted a feasibility study on establishing production standards for the local furniture industry.
The output of the study, which was conducted for the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF), will be presented on Nov. 20, in line with the five-day Grand Export Sale in Cebu at the SM City Cebu conference hall.
Pearl 2 also recently conducted a study on the value chain analysis of exporters in Cebu. The study revealed that one of the major identified problems is the growing difficulty among Cebu exporters and manufacturers in accessing quality raw materials and components at reasonable prices.
Competing
“(Because of this,) the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) find difficulty in competing with bigger companies in getting good quality materials,†according to a statement.
In response to this finding, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has organized a conference on the development of technology-based value chain for SMEs on Nov. 17.
The activity aims to address the value chain problem by developing a bridge of dialogue between exporters or manufacturers
and raw material suppliers, and identify areas of possible cooperation among regions.
Develop
The conference also aims to formulate a plan for the development of an inter-regional value chain and determine possible DOST Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (Set-up) projects that will develop and strengthen the value chain.
With regard to the feasibility study on establishing production standards for the local furniture industry, the group of De la Salle University researchers, who were commissioned by Pearl 2 to conduct the study, looked into the current practices in the furniture manufacturing industry, identified certain criteria for prioritizing standards and established a preliminary set of standards, which could be developed for furniture manufacturing.
The inputs were drawn from heads of CFIF member-companies and furniture industry representatives, who determined what priority standards can be adopted by the industry.
Pearl 2 is being funded by the Canadian Government through the Canadian International Development Agency.
Its major focus is to strengthen the capabilities of BSOs, such as the CFIF, to enable these organizations to deliver support services to SMEs. (JBN)
