Thursday, February 12, 2015

Int’l jewellery expert enhances local’s capability



DAVAO DEL NORTE, February 12 (PIA) - - An international jewelry expert from the Netherlands boosted recently the capabilities of local jewelers and goldsmiths of Davao del Norte and Compostela Valleys provinces.

Through the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Marieke Bekker, a senior expert from Programma Uitzending Managers (PUM) Netherlands, conducted a series of workshops and company visitations to around 30 local jewelers and goldsmith from January 26 to February 6.

Among the workshop held were Delft Clay Casting Workshop on February 3 at the DTI Davao del Norte Conference Room, and Technical Information on Jewelery Processing and General Design on February 5 at the Tagum City National Trade School.

Bekker also visited and assessed six jewelery and goldsmiths shops in Tagum City.

Judicia Ponio, information officer of the DTI, said that their office wanted to improve the quality of jewelery in the provinces, which was why they requested the expertise of PUM.

Bekker is a jeweler based in Holland and had experience working with big names in the industry such as Tiffany & Co. in New York.

Ponio also said that upon assessment on the local jewelers, Bekker found out that the source of materials was not a problem to the province having a vast amount of gold deposits; rather she noticed the lack of standards in the implementation of jewelery making.

“In Davao del Norte also, the shops are mostly just doing repairs of jewelery and melting of gold. They produce jewelery by made to order scheme and not really for commercial scale production,” Ponio said.

As an offshoot to the activity, the jewelers organized themselves into an association named DavNor Jewelers Association.

Ponio said that after the visitation, the local jewelers can always contact Bekker for advises and continuous sharing of expertise.

PUM Netherlands is a group of senior experts with at least 30 years of experience in their respective field, who volunteers to developing countries and emerging markets by devoting their knowledge to the execution of short term, solid consultancy projects at the work floor

According to the DTI Davao del Norte, PUM experts also assisted local food producers in the province in the previous years. (PIA 11, Michael Uy)

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