THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Davao Region is eyeing to establish a regional federation of consumer groups in a bid to further empower consumers.

DTI-Davao regional director Maria Belenda Ambi told SunStar Davao in an interview at the sidelines of the Consumer Organizations’ Summit at Felcris Centrale, Davao City that having a regional federation of consumer organizations will allow better dessimination of information and gathering of inputs.

"The regional federation will also be the one to represent the region if a national federation is established," Ambi said.

She added that if there are issues in local consumer groups it can be consolidated in a regional level and then elevated to the national level. If some issues are already addressed by other local consmuer groups, other members that are facing similar issues may benchmark from them.

The federation will also serve as a partner of DTI in protecting and empowering consumers.

Ambi said the establishment of a regional federation of consumer groups is among the purpose of the Consumer Organizations’ Summit on Thursday, October 26.

The summit also served as an information sharing venue for different consumer groups in the region.

The gathering of consumer groups was also part of this year's celebration of the Consumer Welfare Month.

The summit was also held simultaneously with the Trabaho, Negosyo at Kabuhayan Fair on October 26 to 27 in the same venue.

As of 11 a.m., Thursday, there were 223 registered applicants for the job fair where 156 are applying for local jobs and 87 for overseas jobs. There were 64 participating firms with some 50,000 jobs, local and overseas, up for grabs.