With a production volume topping 11,000 assorted pieces a week and generating a weekly average of P1.2M, baskets and handicrafts in Bohol prove to be one brilliant industry to rely on in this time of global financial crunch, bares trade regional director Asteria Caberte.
Relying on this fact and relying on the viable industry here owing to the big source of ready raw materials, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) brings to Bohol trainings in basketry, bayong making, beadwork, flora arrangement and franchising seminar to kick-off the government's emergency livelihood and employment program.
And that, DTI Caberte said is still Antequera production. Anteguera is Bohol's basket capital.
Aside from Antequera now, DTI is also assisting basket weaving communities through a national program call Subcontracting partners for Innovation (SPIN) and OTOP clusters especially in Inabanga area to widen the industry to help more Boholanos.
Caberte presided over the DTI- Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) Roadshow at the Jjs Seafoods Restaurant March 11.
As in the road-show which cascaded relevant information about how DTI helps the government get its aim of more jobs to keep people above water in the advent of shaken industries, the agency also hosted trainings and seminars.
People flocked to the beadworks, floral arrangement, bayong making, basket weaving and business opportunities as well as pricing and product costing seminars set in different venues at the sprawling restaurant property.
These skills trainings also support each other like beads with bayong and baskets, baskets with floral arrangements, with pricing and costing and business opportunities superimposed on top of them, pointed out a DTI Bohol staff.
Director Caberte explained that the activity is part of the government's P160-B economic stimulus package where P100-B has been tagged for infrastructure development.
The idea is to keep generating jobs so that people find work and sustain the economy.
"When people have less disposable income, they tend to hold from buying, and that is bad for the economy like what we have now," explains Caberte.
At the CLEEP road show, some 41 trained in beadworks, another 40 enrolled in flower arrangement, a practical skill to have when in an island where tourism becomes a by-word.
In the advent of trending towards eco-solutions, DTI also put up bayong making and basket weaving in preparation for mainstreaming native recyclable and environment friendly alternative packaging.
About 35, mostly women trained in weaving the bayong while 12 registered in the basic basket weaving training, a fact many note as not as brilliant when Bohol basket industry has gone from basic to designs already.
For the small and medium enterprise owners, 31 came in to enroll in the seminar on pricing and costing while 43 listened to resource persons talking about business opportunities here. - Rey Chiu, PIA
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