Tuesday, November 06, 2007 Taiwanese investors vow to assist Davao SMEs By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE head of the 15-man trade mission from Taiwan, who was in Davao City two weeks ago, has vowed to return to Davao City to assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Davao Region.
This was according to Ferdinand Maranon, of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII) and who chaired the Davao Trade Expo (Date) 2007. The Taiwan Inbound Mission was scheduled in time for the Date.
"Robert Chen, the head of the Taiwan group who came here, has committed to come back in months time to assist our SMEs in food processing and packaging," Maranon said.
He said Chen will also bring in another group of representatives from various companies in Taiwan that will extend assistance to Davao SMEs.
"They would like to teach the small processors the proper packaging, like how to pack frozen products. They will teach our SMEs how they do it Taiwan," Maranon said.
The Taiwan Mission is an offshoot of the Philippine Mission to Taiwan in June 2006 where food-exporting companies had the opportunity to observe the Taiwan Food Show and the Technology Exposure.
The regional office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which initiated the Philippine Mission to Taiwan, said SME delegates showed significant interest on the technology adaptation and acquisition of machines and packaging materials.
For this reason, DTI-Southern Mindanao has organized the Taiwan Inbound Mission which brought selected Taiwanese machinery and packaging suppliers to Davao City in order to optimize the technology transfer and acquisition process.
But DTI-Southern Mindanao has yet to produce a report on the Taiwan Inbound Mission conducted in the city two weeks ago.
The mission was also designed to reinforce investment promotion efforts. The Taiwan Inbound Mission highlighted two events, the technology and investment forum, and the business matching.
The technology and investment forum is an investment briefing for the Taiwanese businessmen and it provided them with relevant information on the inherent opportunities and investment potentials of Davao Region and Mindanao.
The business matching, on the other hand, is the highlight of the mission wherein local SMEs that need particular equipment were linked to Taiwanese suppliers.
Marizon Loreto, DTI-Southern Mindanao assistant regional director, said earlier that prior to the mission, initial pre-matching preparations were already conducted to facilitate the matching session.
These included the conduct of equipment survey to SMEs where they were made to identify the equipment that they are interested to acquire from the Taiwanese suppliers.
