Thursday, May 31, 2007 SMEs to get loans, experts’ help
TWO Dutch non-government financing institutions are willing to extend loans of as much as P5 million per project to small and medium-scale entrepreneurs in Cebu.
This was announced by Ton Hens, country coordinator for Programma Uitzending Managers (PUM) Philippines, a business group from the Netherlands Management Cooperation program.
Woord en Daad and Program for Cooperation with Emerging Markets (PSOM), in partnership with PUM Netherlands Senior Experts assistance project, will provide credit facilities ranging from P350,000 to P5 million per project without any collateral to deserving small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the next few months, he said.
Hens said the financial aspect of a company is important and he noted that SMEs in the Philippines suffer from lack of capitalization windows due to strict collateral requirements imposed by banks.
“Although these companies do not require any collaterals, they will be properly assessed through the PUM Netherlands assistance,” Hens told a press conference yesterday at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.
PUM Netherlands has been sending its senior experts to Cebu to help SMEs develop their entrepreneurial skills and improve marketability through business linkages programs, depending on the expert’s specific recommendations.
After the initial visit of Dutch experts in Cebu, local companies will be able to further avail themselves of a follow up project through a grant by the Hans Blankett Fund (HBF) in Holland.
HBF provides monetary grants of as much as 4,000 euros, Hens said.
In a press statement, PUM said the Netherlands is the Philippines’ third biggest export market, reaching the $4 billion mark in 2005 and accounting for a nine percent share of total exports.
In the same year, the Philippines’ import from Holland reached $400 million and the country consistently gained a positive balance of trade with the Dutch.
Potential
Hens, along with PUM Netherlands senior experts, are in Cebu to encourage local SMEs to avail themselves of the program since they foresee strong potentials of the province’s economy.
He said the interested beneficiaries should have a foreign membership of less than 49 percent, at least two years in operation and a minium of 10 employees to as much as 10,000 and turn-over sales not exceeding 50 million euros based on the Department of Trade and Industry guidelines.
All on-line applications should be as precise as possible, he added.
“Once the movement for application is approved, different sector coordinators will select which senior experts they want based on the file data we send to them,” Hens said.
PUM Netherlands has over 4,000 volunteer senior experts available to help enterprises in Eastern and Southern Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Asia, Northwest, South and West Africa.
Since it established its presence in the country in 1978, PUM Netherlands has conducted 67 projects and about 50 percent were implemented among SMEs and local government units in Cebu.
PUM Netherland’s objectives are to assist companies in various aspects of management and business operations in manufacturing, water and energy, transport and logistics, education, infrastructure and engineering, accounting, human resources, health care, agriculture, food, retail and wholesale trade, information technology and tourism sectors, to name a few.
This year, it is focused on environment-related projects, Hens said.
The PUM program is financed by the Dutch government, the European Union, the largest Dutch employers’ organization VNO-NCW and international organizations, like the United Nations. (MMM)
