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Friday, September 22, 2006
Help SMEs qualify for loans, says group
Helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) qualify for a loan is a bigger help to the sector than just offering lending windows to help fund their expansion plans.
Tim Moiket, country project manager of the Business Advisory Project of the Canadian Executive Service Organization (Ceso-BAP), urged the government and other institutions focusing on SMEs to first help these companies qualify for loans.
“This is what we should do. The key for SMEs to get the loan is for them to qualify. We can get our SMEs to be qualified. Our SMEs just need a little push. Then they will go a long, long way,” he said.
Moiket said this is what Ceso-BAP, a bilateral project between the Philippines and Canada, is doing.
He also advised SMEs in Cebu, especially those in the same industry, to stop treating each other as a competitor.
“This has been a problem in Cebu. Based on our observation, once a company grows, a number of companies in the same
sector die. We must change our mindset from competition to cooperation. Clustering is very important for area to experience equitable development,” Moiket said.
Ceso-BAP provides technical assistance and advice to SMEs, especially those located in less progressive areas. It is being funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.
Ceso-BAP extends assistance in technology transfer, production and operations, marketing, management and organization and product development to micro and small companies in the Visayas and Mindanao.
The assistance extended by the group has been credited in the qualification of SMEs for loans, among them the Capiz Shell Philippines and members of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Negros Oriental.
Moiket also cited Profood, a company based in Bohol, which was able to get a loan from an international financing organization after seeking assistance from Ceso-BAP.
Ceso-BAP employs clustering to reach out to as many SMEs as possible and to spread the cost of its assistance.
A company has to shoulder the board and lodging expenses, estimated to be at P40,000 to P65,000 a month, of experts employed as advisers by the project.
“If companies sharing the same problem or concern group and share the expenses, then it would be lighter on their part,” Moiket said. (JBN)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 22, 2006 issue)
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