Good news for local micro, small, and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs).
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Region II has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with a tech-enabled exporting company to aid the country’s MSMEs export their products abroad under the oneSTore project.
"With the desire to help local micro, small, and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs) go global, the DOST Region II, through the oneSTore project, partnered with the 1Export – a tech-enabled marketing company that helps businesses in exporting their products abroad,” DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña said during his weekly report on Friday, March 19.
He said a MOA was signed on March 12, 2021 to solidify the partnership between the DOST Region II and 1Export, which provides a one-stop end-to-end exporting platform that provides services to any and all trading businesses around the world.
"This collaboration aims to help local MSMEs, through oneSTore, export their products globally. It seeks to provide a solution to oneSTore’s current challenge –that is, delivering/shipping to other countries the orders received through oneSTore.ph website,” de la Peña said.
He noted that the 1Export, which was founded in 2016, currently exports to the United States, Middle East, and Australia, and soon, in Canada.
Since its establishment in 2016, the firm has garnered over 200 suppliers of food and agricultural products.
Anna Melissa Nava, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of 1Export, DOST Region 2 Regional Director Sancho A. Mabborang, and Chris P. Musni, project Manager of oneSTore.ph grace the MOA signing on March 12.
As an e-commerce web application, OneSTore.ph helps the DOST-assisted MSMEs widen the scope of their target market.
"The general objective of the e-commerce platform is to sustain the growth of MSMEs and promote inclusive growth in the countryside. Specifically, it aims to help MSMEs promote their products to a wider market base, build relevant information to facilitate e-marketing of products, and establish partnerships, networks and linkages for efficient operations,” the DOST Region II said.
The system is registered to the Intellectual Property Office in the Philippines applied under the name and authority of the DOST II.