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Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Gov’t lending bodies urged to increase staff
By Jessica B. Natad
CEBU-BASED loan applicants of government financial institutions (GFIs) may not have to wait long for the approval of their applications, as the Department of Trade and Industry-Cebu Provincial Office (DTI-CPO) has urged the GFIs to increase the number of their staff in the province.
According to DTI-CPO Director Nelia Navarro, there is a need for more employees in the offices of the four GFIs participating in the government’s “SME Unified Lending Opportunities for National Growth” or Sulong program to speed up the evaluation of the applications.
Sulong is a unified lending program for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) designed to support the National SME Development Plan of the Arroyo administration.
Navarro said some 80 applications as of June 15 are now pending evaluation in the offices of the Small Business Guarantee and Finance Corp. (SBGFC), Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency (Philexim), National Livelihood Support Fund, and Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp.
She said the DTI-CPO has been helping the SBGFC, which is under the DTI, evaluate loan applications submitted to the DTI-CPO office.
Action
“As much as possible, DTI wants action within two weeks. The existing 60-day average processing period is too long for exporters,” Navarro said.
As of May 31, the GFIs have released P275 million to 158 clients. Another P72 million is to be released to 31 clients, she said.
“The offices of these GFIs just need more people to evaluate and process the applications... We have written the Manila offices already of our request,” Navarro said on the sidelines of the opening of the SME Opportunities Caravan at the Cebu Grand Hotel yesterday.
Briefing
The three-day event comprises a product design clinic, seminar on expanding business through export, market opportunities clinic, and briefing on the financing program for franchise businesses.
During yesterday’s opening, National SME Development Council private sector representative for the Visayas Joyce Yang encouraged the participants to set their own initiatives, and not rely solely on the government.
“It’s good to know that the government has programs like this (financing). But we should not rely on the government. The government can only do so much,” she said.
(July 1, 2003 issue)
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