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Gov’t will continue to help MSMEs access financing, gain markets |
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Friday, 17 July 2009 |
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The government is continuously helping the micro, small and medium
enterprises (MSMEs) access financing and gain more markets. Trade Secretary Peter Favila during the recent entrepreneurship summit
said the SME Unified Lending Opportunities for National Growth (SULONG)
program has lent some P305.57 billion.
Favila said they are also providing technical assistance to the MSMEs,
particularly to export-oriented firms. “The granting of technical assistance is likewise intensified to
encourage our MSMEs, the vulnerable sectors… (to the crisis) to
diversify, innovate and upgrade technological capacities,” he said.
The trade chief said government efforts are also geared towards promoting
investments at the local level. Over 200 local government units (LGUs) nationwide have already
streamlined their business registration processes which resulted in
17-percent increase in registration and 36-percent rise in tax
collections, he said.
Small Business Corp. chairman Virgilio Angelo said his agency is
undertaking a financial literacy program designed to assist the MSMEs
produce financial documents which can support their loan applications
with the bank.
Angelo said they are also promoting to smaller banks the implementation
of cash-flow method in granting loans. Such method, otherwise called the
risk-based lending, uses the borrowers’ cash flow, capitalization and
financial capacity as lending criteria.
For his part, Science and Technology Undersecretary Fortunato Dela Pena
said his department is ensuring that MSMEs introduce new technologies to
improve their productivity.
“What we are doing at the DOST is to make sure that small businesses
would be able to introduce new technology,” he said. “For the start-up,
we are addressing this through business incubation
program.”
SBC’s Angelo said improving access to financing and markets, promoting
growth of investments and ensuring productivity are the goals of the
Republic Act No. 9501, the Magna Carta for MSMEs. The DTI estimated that of the total 783,065 registered business
enterprises operating in the country, around 99.7 percent or 780,469 are
MSMEs and the remaining 0.3 percent (2,596) are large firms. -- Danielle Venz, PHILEXPORT News and
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