Acting Trade Secretary Maria Cristina Roque (PNA photo by Joan Bondoc)
MANILA – Acting Trade Secretary Maria Cristina Roque has created a hotline that will enable consumers to have a direct communication with and report their concerns to her.
The public may reach her by sending an electronic mail to sec@dti.gov.ph, Roque said during the Malacañang Insider program hosted by Malacañang Press Briefer Daphne Oseña-Paez.
“Anytime, they can email me directly and every day, I’m going to check on them one-by-one. I mean, I have a group now, I set up a team – usually, matutok ako eh (I am a hands-on person) so that’s what we’ll do on a daily basis and then we’ll forward it to the different departments,” Roque said in an interview aired over state-run PTV-4.
As the acting head of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Roque said it is easy to connect with her because she is “friendly, approachable, [and] very easy to talk to.”
She said she intends to work with concerned government agencies that could help her in strengthening the business sector.
“My leadership style is, I am very open, I like to talk to the people and I really want to know what's happening. I really like an exchange of views and I am very open, but I am quite straight also,” she said.
“I feel that if I can work together with them, then we can really be strong all together,” she added.
Small businesses’ development
Roque also reiterated that she would focus on the development of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
She said she would employ “five-point” strategies for the MSMEs– digitalization, diversification, access to funding, franchise funding, and mentoring.
“If we uplift the MSMEs which is 99.5 percent, then that would really uplift the economy instantaneously. That’s why there’s really a drive to really uplift and to level up these MSMEs as best as we can. And this is a quick way because, actually, the MSME are really raring to go – they just need to be helped, to be mentored and to be told what are the different programs that the Department of Trade and Industry has for them,” she said.
Foreign investments
Roque said she would also put a premium on foreign investments, noting that her plan is to take an “aggressive” approach to attract more investments.
She said the DTI would work closely with the Board of Investments, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, and the Office of the Special Assist to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs to entice more foreign investments in priority sectors.
“For international trade, we will be really pushing aggressively and very intensively to attract the international investors,” Roque said. “I’ve met a lot of businessmen abroad and they really wanted to invest in the Philippines. You know why? Because of our strong population. We are 115.6 million Filipinos, so that alone is a big buying power for these people in international investment.” (PNA)
