The Technology Resource Center (TRC) celebrates its 32nd anniversary with a renewed commitment to help low-income Filipino families start a business of their own. In a press conference at the TRC Building in San Juan City, Director General Antonio Ortiz said the development of more and more entrepreneurs remains to be the Philippine’s best bet against the long term effects of the global financial crisis. Ortiz even noted with optimism how the displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) could prove yet again to be heroes by coming home to start their own successful businesses.

More than a thousand OFWs have already enlisted with the TRC’s special livelihood training program for displaced migrant workers. They are set to undergo a comprehensive business seminar, which includes basic entrepreneurship, business planning and a starter business package. The project is funded by the Department of Labor and Employment – National Reintegration Center for OFWs (DOLE-NCRO).

Ortiz noted that even before the extensive lay-offs of OFWs, TRC has already been augmenting its services to the growing number of OFWs-turned-entrepreneurs. He said the same services has been extended by TRC to the general public since establishment in 1977 but it was only recently that former OFWs and their dependents began to comprise the bulk of the enrollees.

For the last few years, TRC business courses have also been a staple in the employee benefits system of multinational corporations operating in the country such as Intel, FedEx and Levi’s among others. Ortiz lauded such companies for equipping their employees with entrepreneurial skills they can use for life.

TRC, a state-owned corporation under the Department of Science and Technology, used to be among the losing government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs). In 2004, the agency took the bitter pill of rationalization as mandated by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Executive Order 366. Last year, after four years of optimizing its operations, TRC posted a modest gain p\of almost P400M. Having surmounted its own fiscal crisis of the last eight years, TRC is now best equipped to assist OFW’s and other first-time entrepreneurs start their own business.

BACKGROUND
                 
 In February 23, 1997, the government established the Technology Resource Center, in honor of its commitment to the Manila–sponsored International Conference on the Survival of Humankind that was held a year earlier. It was resolved in the conference that technology must play a bigger role in the economic development of the country and its citizenry. Under Presidential Decree 1097, the government mandated the TRC to make technology easily accessible to the various sectors of the society and readily applicable for business use.

Through the years, the center remained committed to its mandated by nurturing the people’s entrepreneurial aspirations with a wide range of instructional modules. Indeed, many successful entrepreneurs today trace their beginnings inside one of TRC’s training rooms. Their success stories have now become an integral part of nation-building the next ASEAN economic tiger.

TRC has carved a niche in the business community. It has initiated the entrepreneurial hands-on training courses and production of knowledge-building materials that made TRC a by-word among homemakers, entrepreneurs, student, and business enthusiasts.

After more than three decades of service to the Filipinos, TRC remains steadfast in its commitment to making technology accessible and applicable for business use.

TRC has set its sights on being the primary source of livelihood and investment opportunities and a hub of technology resources in the country. It shall provide the market, the supplies and materials, innovative ideas, the business, as well as network and country’s one-of-kind, one-stop-shop for business and investment alternatives.

Initially established to attract foreign and local investors in order to stimulate economic activities and provide employment in the nearby communities, as well as generate foreign exchange for the country. These TCs also serve as hubs for the Center’s Business Incubation Program.