The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is expected reach out to more budding entrepreneurs as it is rolling out the micro, small, and medium-scale enterprise (MSME) development plan 2017-2022 by January next year.
Trade Assistant Secretary Blesila Lantayona said the upcoming plan would still focus on its predecessor’s four identified outcome portfolios, but with the addition of one area suggested by Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez.
“By next year, we will be including training and capacity building to promote the culture of entrepreneurship and enterprise development,” she said during the launching of the Kapatid Mentor Me program in Cebu City last Friday.
The current MSME development plan 2011-2016 has identified four outcome portfolios including a business enabling environment, access to financing, access to market, and enhanced production and efficiency.
Lantayona said that even while the development plan had not yet been completed, the proposed outcome portfolio would already be evident in the Kapatid Mentor Me program, a joint undertaking by the DTI and the Philippine Center of Entrepreneurship – Go Negosyo.
24 entrepreneurs
In Cebu, 24 entrepreneurs were chosen to undergo a 12-week mentorship program with 30 Go Negosyo coaches and successful members of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI).
Other areas in the country where the program was rolled out earlier include Iloilo, Zamboanga, Cavite, Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Baguio, Tarlac, Lanao del Norte, and Davao.
The trade official said Cebu is a very entrepreneurial province and that she was hoping that the program would take off in other provinces in Central Visayas after it would be launched here.
Most MSMEs
She added that Central Visayas ranks fourth among regions with the most number of MSMEs.
She said that by end of 2017, the DTI would be aiming to mentor 5,400 micro and small entrepreneurs across 270 batches all over the country.
According to the DTI’s midterm review on the MSME development plan 2011-2016, MSMEs all over the country have generated 2.5 million employment opportunities while the agency has extended over 633,000 forms of assistance.
In terms of direct lending from banks, micro and small enterprises were able to borrow P204 billion while medium enterprises got P291 billion.
$69 billion
MSMEs in the country generated $69 billion in aggregate domestic sales and $79 billion in export sales. At the same time, these MSMEs brought in investments worth P171 billion.
Lantayona said MSMEs comprise 99.6 percent or 942,925 out of 946,987 businesses in the country. Of this figure, 89 percent are micro, 9.2 percent are small, and 0.4 percent are medium.
She added that most of them are into wholesale and retail, accommodation and food, and manufacturing, generating 62 percent of total employment in the country and 35 percent of gross value-added in the economy.
“We cannot deny that this is a very important sector,” she said.