THE Provincial Small and Medium Enterprises Development (SMED) Council in Negros Occidental recognizes the challenges among local entrepreneurs particularly on expanding and penetrating markets thus, development efforts from all sectors need to be further strengthened, its president Mary Ann Colmenares said.
Colmenares said the Council is taking into consideration all the concerns of the SMEs in the province.
They are taking steps and initiatives through resolutions, for instance, which concentrate on linking the gap between the needs and solutions to help local entrepreneurs.
“We continue to work on helping SMEs in the province to be more competitive and make sure that their efficiency and productivity are up to par especially with more Asean markets opening up,” Colmenares said.
To be capacitated in meeting and overcoming the challenges, the products have to be competitively priced with quality that is also competitive, she added.
Moreover, the Provincial SMED Council recognizes the role of the government in developing SMEs.
Colmenares said governments of other Asian countries are very supportive to their entrepreneurs. In the Philippines, the government has also realized that they have to help SMEs because of its huge contribution to the economy.
“While the private sector keeps on working on the development of small and local enterprises, the government should also take a step for the development to easily flow,” Colmenares said.
Meanwhile, the SMED Council considers as “a very positive development” the recent pronouncement of the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) that it is eyeing Negros Occidental as one of the possible retiree destinations in the country.
Colmenares said the retirement industry has a very big potential for enterprises to engage, given the environment and the province’s direction towards health and wellness which are aligned to the retirees’ needs.
“This is an opportunity that SMEs should be open to because of many possible industries that might come up from that retirement concept,” she added. (EPN)