ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 27, 2013) – Doctor Sitti Amina Jain has assumed as new regional director of the Department of Trade and Industry in Western Mindanao.
Jain has replaced Nazrullah Manzur, who recently retired, after almost two decades as the regional director. Prior to Jain’s assumption, she was DTI assistant regional director.
In her first meeting with the trade officials, Jain laid down her priorities in line with the following policy direction of the DTI Central Office.
1.SME Development. Strategic interventions to further spur growth of this sector include the provision of Shared Service Facilities (SSF), industry clustering, SME disaster readiness/resiliency program, green growth (focus on climate change mitigating ventures), and grassroots participatory budgeting that is supportive of SME growth..
SMEs, according to Jain, comprise over 90% of all business establishments registered in the country providing gainful employment to hundreds of thousands of Filipinos.
2.Consumer protection. The DTI will be ramping up its consumer welfare protection initiatives to better safeguard the rights of consumers and ensure that they get best value for money.
3.Better management of resources. This does not only mean good governance but also includes accelerated disbursements of funds for so-called big ticket items that would increase our region and the Philippines’s competitiveness standing.
4.H2R Initiative. The DTI believes that its people are its best resources. Hence, H2R (or hire to retire) is an initiative that would ensure the office gets the best people, train and motivate them to give the best public service they could in line with the DTI’s continuing aspiration as the Agency of Choice.
“All these strategic initiatives however, would be of little value to most if these will not result to the upliftment of the lives of the general populace. That is why at the heart of all these things were are doing, should at the end of the day, result to inclusive growth – the trickling down of the fruits of economic development to all Filipinos,” Jain said. (With a report from Lowell Vallecer)
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