THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Davao Region reported that new business name registrations (BNR) in the region reached 10,811 from January to November this year, showing a 13 percent increase from 9,529 in 2013. Based on the agency’s Preliminary Annual Performance 2014 report, which was presented during the DTI-Davao Media Interface on December 5 at the Marco Polo Hotel, there were a total of 12,780 BNRs from January to November this year, a five percent increase from 12,160 BNRs in 2013.

Of the 12,780 BNRs this year, 85 percent or 10,811 are new BNRs while 15 percent or 1,958 were existing businesses.

DTI-Davao said this is “the highest recorded new BNR certificates issued for the past three years.”

DTI-Davao City Director Edwin O. Banquerigo, in a separate interview with Sun.Star Davao on Monday, said the increase in the number of businesses could be the result of their two major programs, the small and medium enterprise (SME) Roving Academy (Smera) and the Shared Service Facility (SSF), and the increase in the investments in the region.

Smera is a series of training and seminars on entrepreneurship that covers topics on how to begin a business to the marketing and development of products.

For this year, DTI-Davao has conducted 121 pieces of training and seminars that attracted 3,973 participants all over the region, Banquerigo said the program may have encouraged new businessmen to start their own businesses.

He said the SSFs that were established in the region has helped strengthen existing Micro, SMEs (MSMEs) and in turn has allowed the “birth” of new SMEs.

For this year, they were able to establish 11 SSFs with a project cost of P9.52 million, which assisted 237 MSMEs and generated 1,366 jobs. In 2013, the agency was able to establish 34 SSFs with combined cost of P9.52 million, which assisted 932 MSMEs and generated 1,870 jobs.

Banquerigo said the entry of investments in the region has also allowed more businesses to be established.

DTI-Davao was also able to assist a total of 6,776 MSMEs, a 76 percent increase from 3,839 MSMEs in 2013.

Of the 6,776, a total of 2,846 or 42 percent were new MSMEs while 3,930 were existing MSMEs. Davao City has the most number of MSMEs assisted at 1,847, followed by Davao Oriental (1,405), Davao del Norte (1,311), Davao del Sur (948), and Compostela Valley (641).