Malaybalay City, Bukidnon – The Provincial Science and Technology Center here conducted a free Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP) forum to a total of 56 enterprises on March 1, 2019, at Roberto’s Place, Malaybalay City, Bukidnon.
The 56 enterprises who attended belonged to the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector located in the province of Bukidnon.
The forum discussed the different programs and services concerning Scholarship and Consortia, Regional Standards and Testing Laboratories (RSTL), Community Empowerment through Science and Technology (CEST), Science and Technology Academic Research-Based Openly Operated KioskS (STARBOOKS), Consultancy and Training, Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM), and SETUP.
PSTC-Bukidnon highlighted SETUP as it is the current demand of their participants. They discussed the guidelines and the requirements to avail of the SETUP program.
At the end of the program, the agency gathered a total of 13 firms who were identified as SETUP-ready, while the others will yet to submit their requirements in the following months.
On that day also marked the election of the new set officers for the Step-UP BUK Association.
The purpose of the creation of the organization is to help DOST in the identification of potential SETUP cooperators, feed backing mechanism in obtaining information about the SETUP applicants, identification of additional technology needs of existing SETUP clients and collection / reminder of on time refunds.
Step-UP BUK Association also served as an independent body which later on will be registered to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). PSTC Bukidnon serving as Secretariat.
"The association can also help us refer to possible good clients/cooperators and maybe improve collection rates.", Ms. Golda Lim, proprietor of Cakeboom Cakes and Pastries in Malaybalay City, said.
For more information on SETUP, contact DOST 10 at (088) 858-3931 or through their facebook page at facebook.com/dostregion10/. (Julie Anne H. Baculio, DOST-X)