Gov’t eyes bamboo as export winner

04/24/2009

After the launching of the “bayong project,” the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will start the development of bamboo into products targeting both local and export markets.

The government’s Comprehensive Livelihood Emergency and Employment Program is tapping the bamboo industry to provide employment to thousands of workers displaced by the global financial crisis.

Trade and Industry Undersecretary Engineer Merly Cruz said, in a statement, said various government agencies are now laying the groundwork for a coordinated work to further develop the bamboo into a billion peso industry.

Under the program, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will be responsible for the bamboo nursery and dispersal growing while the DTI is tasked to further develop the bamboo product and look for markets.

The DENR will employ farmers; participants to the Out of School Youth Serving Toward Economic Recovery and displaced workers to set up a nursery for bamboos and after two months the department will purchase the seed for dispersal program.

Some 2,000 targetted beneficiaries will be tapped and trained by the DENR to handle nursery/growing of seeds.

Botong and tinik bamboo species will be used for propagation. These bamboo seedlings grow to maturity between three to six months and have a gestation period of 4 to 5 years. There are now existing plantations.

Laguna will serve as the first pilot site due to its abundance of water resources especially areas around the Laguna lake. DENR and DTI are in consultation with the Laguna Lake Development Authority for the implementation of the project.

The province has been identified for its massive livelihood program where a lot of workers were laid off at semiconductor firms. The livelihood program serves as intervention to place laid off workers back to the productive economic loop.

The Laguna bamboo model will be applied in Iloilo for Visayas and General Santos for Mindanao.

Other agencies included in the project are the Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Social Welfare and Development, research institutions and non-government organizations. Ayen Infante

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