Cebu, Bohol pilot areas for SME green program

A program to focus on “greening” small and medium enterprises in Cebu and Bohol will be implemented starting December by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).

The tourism industry will also a new focus of the program called Promotion of Green Economic Development, said Elpe Canoog, Small and Medium Enterprise Development for Sustainable Employment Program (SMEDSEP) overall Visayas Program regional coordinator.

Canoog yesterday said the group is expecting an initial project budget of three million Euros for the new program.

This will be the next joint project that the DTI and GIZ will undertake following the success of their nine-year Private Sector Promotion (SMEDSEP) project, which will be completed in December.

“This is a new program that will be done for three years initially. This time we will be focusing on the tourism industry which we think will include many enterprises connected through the value chain,” said Canoog.

Canoog said the project was timely because everyone was facing the effects of climate change and seeing the progressive tourism industry in Cebu and Bohol. .

Both provinces were selected as pilot areas because organizers had worked successfully before with the local government units in implementing SMEDSEP.

“The private sector is very active in Cebu and Bohol. They are open to anything that will help them and for us, greening their businesses is a good step towards improvement and growth,” said program manager Volker Steigerwald.

Steigerwald said “greening” the business processes can improve competitiveness of enterprises because they achieve lower overhead expenses through energy efficiency measures in their different different processes.

“We expect a lot of collaboration with local government units, government agencies, businessmen and business organizations like the chambers who can help make their members aware of the different technologies to green their processes and also give recognition to those who are already practicing it in their businesses,” said Canoog.

The DTI and GIZ expect to partner with the Department of Tourism and the Department of Energy for the project.