BAGUIO CITY – The local government, concerned agencies, artists and artisans and the business community formally opened the declared Crops and Productivity Center serving as a one-stop center for the bestselling products and crafts not only in the city but also from other parts of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) as part of the efforts to sustain Baguio City’s designation as a creative city for crafts and folk arts under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) Creative Cities Network.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan, Trade and Industry Regional Director Myrna Pablo, University of the Philippines College Baguio (UPCB) chancellor Dr. Raymundo Rovillos, Baguio Arts and Creatives Collections Inc. (BACCI) president Adelaida Lim, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) Cordillera Regional Governor Engr. Ernesto Panis, Liga ng mga Barangay president and Councilor Michael Lawana, City Council Committee on Market, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture chairperson Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr. and other stakeholders led the ribbon-cutting ceremony that opened the Crops and Productivity Center located at the DTI-ABC building located along Upper Session road here.
The center will serve as the main display area for the bestselling products not only of the city but also from the different parts of the region to serve as one of the established creative hubs in the city pursuant to the planned establishment of different creative hubs that will sustain its existing identity as a creative city for crafts and folk arts.
Mayor Domogan rallied residents and visitors alike to include in their must-see places in the city, the Crops and Productivity Center for quality products produced by the talented local manufacturers, especially those coming from the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), to establish a market their quality products being produced in their areas around the city and the region.
For her part, Pablo committed the agency’s support in providing whatever trainings in processing and packaging to further improve the state of the products of local entrepreneurs for them to gain appropriate market access for their products to support their livelihoods.
The Crops and Productivity Center building was established sometime in the late 1990s through the assistance of the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago from whom Councilor Yangot accessed the funds for the put up of the said structure to serve as a livelihood center for local entrepreneurs in the different barangays.
The building was leased to a number of groups and businesses over the past several years but the present leadership of the local government, the Liga ng mga Barangays and the DTI-CAR agreed that the same be used instead as a Crops and Productivity Center purposely to present the various products of local entrepreneurs to help the business activities of MSMEs in the city and the region as a whole.
Panis assured the overwhelming support of the city and region’s business sector to the operation of the center and the sustainable promotion of the products of MSMEs because it will greatly help in improving and increasing the economic activities in the barangays allowing the robust local economy to move on to greater heights.
By Dexter A. See
Banner Photo by: Armando M. Bolislis
It is a project of the late Senator Leticia Ramos Shahani, not Senator Meriam Santiago. It was established 1998.