DTI to Match PPE Suppliers With Buyers Using Tinder-Like App
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced on Monday, June 23, that they will set up a collaborative platform connecting suppliers, manufacturers, and buyers of personal protective equipment (PPE) to address the continuous demand for PPEs amid the pandemic.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently turned over the Enhanced Manufacturing of Protective Wear and Equipment for COVID-19 Response in the Philippines, or Empower PH, to DTI.
Empower PH is a collaborative online platform that provides a business matchmaking space for manufacturers, suppliers, and buyers of PPEs and other essential materials needed to make the equipment.
The platform is a centralized information hub for product technical design packs and best practices for PPE manufacturing. It also serves as a vetting mechanism for quality assurance.
UNDP launched the online platform in November 2020, which aims to speed up the production and distribution of PPEs in the Philippines.
DTI Undersecretary Rafaelita M. Aldaba stated, “We believe this initiative is necessary to complement the national government’s efforts to mitigate and manage the impacts not only of COVID-19 but of future pandemics and other disasters as well.”
UNDP Institutions and Partnerships Team Leader Maria Luisa Isabel Lim-Jolongbayan added, “We want to ensure that ‘Empower PH’ continues to be a platform where our local MSMEs will have access to information that will enable them to participate and compete in the market.”
The platform features a 5-point vetting process based on the level of quality standards provided by the Department of Health (DOH), World Health Organization (WHO), and DTI’s Bureau of Philippine Standards (DTI).
Last year, eight Metro Manila-based sewing groups passed the vetting process and signed up in the Empower PH platform.
UNDP expressed their plans on expanding the initiative in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in partnership with the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE).
