DTI and Foreign Assisted Projects (FAPs)

The Department of Trade and Industry explores and utilizes ways to generate additional sources of funding as a means to expand its capacity in carrying out its mandate which is to improve business environment, increase productivity and efficiency, and enhance consumer welfare. Resource generation enables the Department to address budget constraints, fill knowledge gaps, and augment technical capacity.

One of the ways the Department has explored is cooperation and partnership with development partners (i.e. international financing institutions and/or bilateral or multilateral development cooperation agencies), along with the private and public sector both at the national and local levels, as well as the civil society.

Cooperation and partnership are typically in the form of foreign-assisted projects (FAPs). Streamlined through the Official Development Assistance (ODA), FAPs are projects that are wholly or partly funded by foreign sources. Funds may be in the form of soft loans or grants (financial or in-kind), or a combination of the two. Funding is granted on the basis of a Loan or Grant Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, Note Verbale, or on similar contract/instruments entered into by the beneficiary country and the donor institution or country.

Areas of cooperation include industry and sector plans, policy review and studies, promotions/marketing/advocacy, system and infrastructure development, competency and capability-building, and financing.

The FAPs that DTI handles are accorded to in terms of their contribution to the strategies and desired outcomes of the Department, namely developed MSMEs, increased investments, developed industries, increased exports, and empowered consumers. The FAPs are further evaluated by their potential to tackle and respond to cross-cutting issues such as gender equality; corporate social responsibility; climate change; migration; science, information, and communications technology; communication of results; results-based management; participatory planning; and human-rights based approach.

Since 2012, the Department has handled a total of twenty-seven (27) foreign-assisted projects (FAPs), resulting to a total of PhP 4.4 Billion worth of resources generated as of 2016.