Oceanagold (Philippines) Inc., recognizing the role of cooperatives in propelling economic development in the countryside, spent more than P5 million last year from its social development management funds to support enterprise development and agricultural projects.
Oceanagold senior vice president for communications and external affairs Chito Gozar stressed the mining company’s commitment to empowering countryside communities.
Thirteen cooperatives were established after the success of Didipio Community Development Corp. in Didipio, Kasibu Nueva Vizcaya, host to OceanaGold’s Didipio Mine to help ensure the sustainability of the livelihood programs implemented even after the life of mine.
DiCorp was also established through the assistance of OceanaGold to train its communities to become self-sufficient.
Owned by long-term residents of Didipio, the corporation now employs over 300 employees, generated P932-million gross revenue from long-term Didipio mine contracts (from 2011-2016) and was awarded as one of the top tax payers in Nueva Vizcaya.
“Without reinventing the wheel, OceanaGold in collaboration with the local barangay councils uses the cooperative business model to distribute the annual SDMP funds allocated for enterprise development to its host and ten neighboring communities. Funds were either use as seed capital or additional investment to their existing businesses,” Gozar said.
“Livelihood budget allocations from our SDMP funds is coursed through these newly established cooperatives to help us create more jobs, support business expansion and expand economic opportunities for our communities,” Gozar said.
The host community has three established cooperatives in Didipio, two of which are already registered. These are the Didipio Community Multi-Purpose Cooperative and Didipio Producers Cooperative which operate hog and integrated vegetable production, hardware store, agricultural farm input supply and embroidery center.
OceanaGold has been providing leadership, operations training, business plan development and technical assistance to the cooperatives to strengthen the community businesses.
“In addition to these cooperatives, the Didipio operations have directly and indirectly created new business opportunities and expanded the need for agricultural products. The operation currently spends approximately $4.5 million annually on food and supplies from local businesses for the Didipio Camp,” Gozar said.
