MSMEs to gain access to China market

Businessmen watch a video discussing the Bank of China’s plan to link local traders with Chinese investors next year in its roadshow at a resort on Mactan Island. (CDN PHOTO/VICTOR ANTHONY V. SILVA)

Bank of China to host cross-border trade and investment conferences in PH next year

Micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) in the Philippines are expected to gain access to a wider array of information, capital, technology, and markets through the Bank of China’s (BOC) cross-border trade and investment conferences here next year.

Local traders such as Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) president Glenn Soco welcomed this initiative as it is seen to bring in capital investments and loans to spur the growth of MSMEs here.

“It will also open new and wider markets for MSME products especially to China,” he told CDN in a text message.

On Wednesday, the BOC hosted a roadshow at the Crimson Resort and Spa Mactan in Cebu to introduce its business matching platform aimed at helping MSMEs in the Philippines grow by linking them to client-firms in China and the rest of the world.

This roadshow is an offshoot of the state visit of President Rodrigo Duterte to China in October, where he signed an agreement to open $3 billion in credit access to MSMEs, among others.

Soco said MCCI would play an active role in this process as well as send participants to these conferences.

Deng Jun, BOC Manila branch president and country manager, said that while the bank finances SMEs directly and indirectly with partners, its Global SME Cross-border Matchmaking Service promotes interconnection between MSMEs worldwide.

He said it would help them share the global value chain and would stimulate the vitality and globalization of these enterprises.

March in Manila

In Manila by March next year, the BOC will bring traders from China to participate in business matching with local entrepreneurs.

Jun said they would also consider bringing the conference to Cebu if the demand would be high enough.

BOC’s matchmaking service overturns the traditional mode for inviting investment, but it adopts an innovative mode of “one-to-one” or “one-to-more” negotiations and connections.

In the last two years, BOC has already held 26 cross-border investment and trade conferences in the world which attracted over 30,000 people from political and business circles and more than 8,500 enterprises from 57 countries in five continents.

John Paul Iñigo, trade services officer of the Department of Trade and Industry, said MSMEs in the Philippines are facing the challenge of having limited access to capital, technology, and markets.

He said the present administration sought to address this challenge when President Duterte entered into several agreements with China last month, further strengthening the two countries’ bilateral relations and establishing cooperation mechanisms to serve MSMEs here and in China.

After the roadshow, Jesus Varela, International Chamber of Commerce Philippines director general, said they would meet with local chambers for initial matching and come up with a list of recommended participants to the conference.

The BOC will also generate a list of prospective partners for Filipino businesses from its roster of clients.

“This is a world vision. We see and we look forward to a worldwide economy of abundance which is ours for the making and the picking,” said Varela.

Melanie Ng, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, also said that this is a great opportunity for local MSMEs to have global matchmaking access and avail of business linkages in China.

The Bank of China Limited was established in February 1912 and is considered as China’s most internationalized and diversified bank, serving the Chinese mainland and 47 countries, including the Philippines, where it has a branch in Manila.