Cagayan de Oro City—The regional office of the Department of Science and Technology here is working closely with other government agencies in Region 10 to produce optimum assistance benefits especially among the micro, small and medium enterprises.

"We have no problem when it comes to project duplications by some government agencies,” DOST Region 10 Director Alfonso Alamban said during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Mindanao Cluster Science and Technology Fair in Limketkai Center.

Government agencies such as the Deparment of Trade and Industry and Department of Agriculture, among others, provide technical and other forms of business enhancing assistance to MSMEs in the country as part of the government’s economic development and job generation programs.

Alamban explained that in Region 10, government agencies work together and “in fact, we conducted a workshop on business proposal writing. DTI gave important inputs on the management side of the business while DOST provided the technical assistance.”

Meanwhile, Alamban proposed that MSMEs should indicate “recognized by” instead of “assisted by” in their products’ packaging to enhance their market competitiveness.

The Mindanao Cluster S&T Fair will run until October 10. It is the last leg of the Regional S&T fairs for this year.