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P-NOY details plan for MSME upgrade |
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President Benigno Simeon Aquino, Jr. details his plan to increase the profitability and quality of products of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which account for 99.6 percent of the total number of firms in the country.
In his keynote speech delivered by Trade Chief Gregory L. Domingo at the SME Summit 2011 held yesterday, the President articulated the course of actions the government intends to take to capacitate MSMEs to penetrate a much wider and stable market.
In the next five years, we will work towards providing MSMEs a bigger and more stable market to enable them to increase its economic contribution to 40 percent of the gross value added and generate two million jobs, the President said.
These target contribution of MSMEs to employment and gross value added and the strategies to achieve it are laid out in the SME Development Plan 2011-2016.
To do this, efforts to improve the ease of doing business will be further intensified and more provincial caravans, information centers, and SME centers will be launched, he said.
To aid the MSMEs to penetrate both the local and international markets, there will be greater promotion of the use of indigenous and local products under the One Town One Product (OTOP) program and microfinancial institutions will be strengthened to boost MSME financing.
To improve the quality of products and services that MSMEs offer, more training will be provided to enable them to exploit the benefits the information and communications technology (ICT), the President related.
Meanwhile, given the millions of Filipinos without jobs, the President detailed that more training programs will be offered to enhance the technical and vocational skills of the workforce, thus, providing them confidence to start a business.
Complementing the aforementioned initiatives for MSMEs, the President mentioned his intent of enticing overseas Filipino workers to invest in the country and transfer their knowledge. -- Ritchelle Alburo, PHILEXPORT News and Features
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