TESDA and UNIDO Strengthen Partnership for Sustainable Cold Chain Industry

September 14, 2023, Taguig City – UNIDO Philippines, led by its Country Representative Mr. Teddy Monroy, met with TESDA, led by Secretary Suharto Mangudadatu, PhD. to discuss areas of collaboration on skills development in light of the country’s agenda on green jobs and Industry 4.0

Through the “Global Partnership for Improving the Food Cold Chain in the Philippines” (FCC) project, TESDA’s partnership with UNIDO has resulted to a series of trainings on sustainable and climate-friendly cold chain technologies that has reached over 1,000 key stakeholders. It has also resulted to conducting the first-ever training on Safe Operation and Maintenance of Ammonia-based Industrial Refrigeration System which initiated its curriculum development and inclusion in TESDA’s course offerings. The establishment of the Cold Chain Innovation (CCI) Hub, hosted by TESDA, further strengthened the partnership and is expected to catalyze the development of low-carbon, energy efficient refrigeration innovation technologies and business practices in the country. CCI-Hub serves as a central ecosystem of technical resources, training, knowledge sharing and stakeholder collaboration and is the first of its kind in the region.

A quick tour of the CCI-Hub was conducted by FCC Project Team Leader Engr. Gilda Garibay and Technical Expert Manuel Azucena. Also present were TESDA Deputy Director-General for Policies and Planning Ms. Rosanna A. Urdaneta and National Institute for Technical Education and Skills Development (NITESD) Executive Director David Bugallon.

UNIDO and TESDA will continue to support the cold chain industry as it seeks to be more sustainable, resilient and globally competitive through capacity building, demonstration projects and financing.