Friday, August 29, 2008 Sumog-oy: Yaman-Gensan: A conceptual review By Ben Sumog-oy Issues and Views
CONCEPTUALIZED to promote and support SMEs, Yaman Gensan works to disperse business opportunities, especially those engaged in the processing of raw materials into finished product, to as many local people as possible.
Using locally produced raw materials, these business ventures, as social enterprises, contribute in enlivening the local market, speeding up local money circulation and in providing massive employment opportunities to the wider section of the city's productive population.
More importantly, they operate as a social balancer for the purpose of lessening, if not totally removing, the social faultline separating the rich and the poor.
Moreover, since business ventures, operating within the Yaman Gensan concept, mainly use indigenous raw materials for their processed commodities, they contribute to the infusion of economic blood into the basic communities, rather than bleeding them dry until death. They trigger the active accumulation of capital within the locality, rather than induce massive capital flights toward various external destinations. Thus, with Yaman Gensan, the city is freed from the deadly effects of financial abortions, innate in a highly capitalistic society.
In the other part of this discussion, we contended, among others, that Yaman Gensan was conceptualized to support SMEs. The contention appears so simplistic but, in deeper analysis, it has deep-seated social meanings. It is, in truth, a strategy towards the attainment of genuine and equitable economic development in the city.
Furthermore, it is meant to strengthen the purchasing power of the people in basic communities, ensure free access of the forces of production to both domestic and local markets and to enable the city and the local communities to take hold of their own resources for its own economic glory and welfare.
Lending sharper look at Yaman Gensan, we can easily conclude that there is no intention, at all, in the part of its framers to apply the outmoded "trickle-down-effect" principle in its continuing bid to invite and promote foreign and local investments. This principle has been proven in many localities to be, in a larger extent, an aid to inequality.
Dorecita T. Delima, DTI's acting regional director, has been articulating this view and, in fact, this is the reason why the local office of DTI, under her watch, continuously conducts skills' trainings in products' processing, packaging and marketing, among others, not only with business enterprises but also with social institutions and basic sectors, as stakeholders.
There is no doubt that the city's business community also supports this view. The "trickle-down effect" principle has already been struck down by modern business thinkers as anathema to the pursuit of a favorable business climate for, unless the forces of production possess the power to produce and buy, business enterprises may not be able to sustain their bullish existence; thus, in the end, the local economy is jeopardized.
The sustainability of local business climate can only be guaranteed when social formations in basic communities are made as direct participants, rather than mere beneficiaries, in the processes of development. As proven by experiences, no business can survive in the midst of a destitute population.
Lastly, as a human project, Yaman Gensan is not, at all, perfect. Nevertheless, the people have all the reasons to celebrate its birthing.
