LOCAL enterprises, especially the micro and small, should be developed further so that the whole business sector can feel the growth of commerce in the country, said Frank Carbon, president of Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI).
Carbon spoke before a group of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Negros Occidental during a forum on Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Programs and Projects held at the Negros First Negosyo Center in Bacolod City yesterday.
He said there is a need for concerned government agencies to give integrated and comprehensive assistance to MSMEs for them to graduate from being micro to small, and move towards small to medium.
Carbon said that although MSMEs are comprised of at least 90 percent of registered establishments employing almost 70 percent of the country’s total workforce, “we cannot really feel yet the trickling down of the benefits of the national growth to the local economy.”
“Once they have graduated from being micro and small, they are now more bankable and can take care of themselves and know where to go,” the business leader said.
“They can now provide higher wages and give benefits to their employees thus, economic growth and prosperity can be felt more,” he added.
DOST-Negros Occidental Provincial Director Francis Allan Daraug said that through the forum, they will be able to present to participants, who are mostly from the food and manufacturing businesses, the agency’s programs and projects that they can avail.
“There are lots of technologies, consultancies, and trainings that need to be transferred,” Daraug said.
The DOST has provided assistance through its Innovation System and Support Fund (ISSF) Program to 250 MSMEs in the province.
In terms of upgrading of facilities and purchase of production equipment, the agency has released P14 million last year with no default of payments since the program started in 2013, Daraug added.
Meanwhile, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Negros Occidental also enumerated during the forum the department’s role and services for MSMEs such as improving and ensuring their business productivity.
DTI Officer-In-Charge-Provincial Director Rachel Nufable said that through various skills development trainings, MSMEs are also being assisted to maintain the quality of their products and how to efficiently market them.
They are also capacitated to join and even initiate their own trade fairs, she added.