MANILA – The Department of Trade and Industry plans to upscale its One Town One Product program as a brand in the hope of turning some of the OTOP entrepreneurs into franchisers, a government press release said.

“The OTOP as brand will sort of anchor on the 67 thousand small and micro entrepreneurs that we were able to develop in 1497 municipalities and cities of the country. As a project graduating into a brand, the OTOP will rely mainly on the entrepreneurs,” DTI Undersecretary Merly Cruz said.

The OTOP is a government program which aims to promote economic development in the Philippine countryside through entrepreneurship and job creation, the press release said.

It promotes the best product and service associated within a given locality, and utilizes the abundant local resources and labor to stimulate local economic activity, it added.

The DTI has aligned the OTOP with the various industry clusters to develop innovative and globally-competitive enterprises and make them contribute significantly to employment generation and inclusive growth.

Currently, there are 32 industry clusters that are homegrown, the press release said.

These clusters are mostly in agribusiness, food, and handicrafts. Strategic development plans for target industry clusters were drafted using the value chain framework during the series of industry cluster development planning workshops held in Central Visayas, Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, and Southern Mindanao early this year.

The DTI continues to support our OTOP entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises through creating business models to generate the market and sustain the SMEs, the press release said.

Currently, there are three pilot OTOP stores in the country.

The product mix of each OTOP store is 70 percent from the region and 30 percent from other regions.

Buyers have the option to go to the store and buy the product, or order online, the press release said.

For customers who want to shop online, an online shop will enhance OTOP visibility among target buyers in the country and abroad. It also has a logistics company to support its operation, it added.*

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