THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) held Thursday its "Go Negosyo" seminar in the City of Bacolod with the theme “Negosyo Seminar for DTI One Town One Product Program and micro, small and medium enterprises,” at the L’Fisher Hotel.
Regional Director of DTI Western Visayas, Dominic Abad, said the seminars aim to address the unemployment situations not only in Negros Occidental but in the entire regions of the country.
Go Negosyo is the advocacy of the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE), a non-stock, non-profit organization that advocates for a change in mindset and attitude.
PCE believes that the Filipinos can address poverty in the country by engaging in entrepreneurship and developing an optimistic, passionate, creative and innovative, resourceful, diligent and persevering character.
Abad cited that in year 2004-2005, Western Visayas has almost 36,000 graduates in college, and in 2008-2009 it was already 41,000 new graduates, and that Abad worried if these graduates were already employed or not, especially since the country was also affected by the global crisis.
He said in Western Visayas, most of the new graduates applied for abroad because of unemployment here in our country.
Abad emphasized that the Go Negosyo encourages everyone to take charge and make the most of their resources and abilities by utilizing and transforming these into viable enterprises. An entrepreneurial culture would lead to an entrepreneurial nation and, consequently, to improved economy for the country.
He said the entrepreneurships aim to create employment and income to the people, noting that almost 11,000 people in Western Visayas had already availed of training on entrepreneurship.
He added that the PCE hopes to demystify entrepreneurial success and popularize entrepreneurship as an alternative to unemployment, job-seeking or migration.
It is in improving education, fostering and an optimistic and conducive culture, and providing a marketplace of ideas, innovations, business models and best practices catalyzing the development of entrepreneurship in the country.
Abad said there is now an 11th Go Negosyo seminar conducted in the country, which almost 7,000 participants had attended the seminars and just for free. Abad’s hoping that this would be helpful for the respective participants of said seminar.