TO FURTHER support the country’s efforts to ensure good governance and develop the private sector, a project funded by the Canadian Government is enhancing its services in helping local small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The Canadian Executive Service Organization and the Philippine Business for Social Progress’ Business Advisory Project provides business advisory services to help SMEs in marketing and product technology, among others.
Presidential Management Staff Director General Cerge Remonde described the project as “laudable.”
He said that as of March this year, the project has already served 166 clients in the Visayas and Mindanao.
“Most of those in the Visayas were involved in handicraft-making while those in Mindanao were engaged in agribusiness,” he said.
“This (project) just started six months ago, and it’s just now that it’s being implemented,” said Peter Sutherland, Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines.
He said the project involves Canadian retiring executives who can give business advisory to local SMEs.
Remonde who was guest during the CESO-BAP SME partners forum last Wednesday said the function of entrepreneurship in the country has evolved significantly and is now seen as an “indispensable component in the global economy, generating employment, growth and international competitiveness.”
He said supporting SMEs, which employs 70 percent of the country’s total workforce, is a strategy to fight poverty. (TEP)
