DOST awards P400,000 assistance to handicraft business
By Jennifer C. Tilos 

DUMAGUETE CITY, July 30 (PIA) -- The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has awarded about P400,000 financial assistance to Orient Gifts Center for the technology upgrade of its sinamay-based home furnishings and fashion accessories production.

Under its Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (Setup), the DOST provided the funds to handicraft-selling firm for its production machinery, a single computer-aided embroidery machine with embedded software acquired to upgrade and enhance the company’s productivity that would also yield quality output of goods.

According to DOST assistant provincial director Roslyn Tambago the Setup addresses the company’s main struggles in embroidery production such as in wallets, coasters, and wall decors which takes an hour.

“With this Setup assistance, the production utilizes only 15 minutes of working time. A single placemat needed one day to complete but now it only requires an hour to finish. The production and quality of table runners and panuelos (neckerchief) are also expected to improve with the new technology,” said Tambago

Previously, Orient Gifts used handlooms and the traditional method of weaving but with some innovations and technological assistance from DOST, the weaving process is expected to deliver a 20 percent increase in the total production volume of sinamay, making a quantum leap from a mere 800 meters in a month to 960 meters, the DOST official said.

At present, Orient Gifts has 26 workers, 10 of which are direct employees and 16 are subcontractors, most of them are members of abaca processing communities in the province.

With current breakthrough in technology, the DOST has encouraged the small and medium enterprises or entrepreneurs to invest and avail the SETUP. (MBCN/JCT/PIA7 Negros Oriental)