SEVENTEEN micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Negros Occidental are currently showcasing their products in the Negros Business Week at Robinsons Place Bacolod, which opened on Monday.
The activity, now on its eighth year, is organized by the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), Province of Negros Occidental, and the City of Bacolod.
MBCCI Chief Executive Officer Frank Carbon, also the regional governor of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) Western Visayas and Negros Island Region (NIR), said this year’s activity is aimed at further exposing local enterprises to bigger and potential markets.
Carbon pointed out that 90 to 95 percent of enterprises registered under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in the province are micro and small, and only very few are medium and large.
Still, these micro and small businesses absorb more than 50 percent of the total employment thus, a huge number of local employees are also receiving minimum wage, he added.
“This condition results to weak circulation of money, wherein working class grow yet on a slow pace,” Carbon said, adding that the annual business week highlights the need for local MSMEs to further grow.
Themed “Moving Up Negros Island through MSMEs,” the whole idea of the program is for the enterprises to grow from micro to small, small to medium, and medium to large.
The business leader, however, pointed out that the private sector’s effort is not enough to further develop these enterprises.
Carbon said government agencies should also come together and converge their resources, programs and activities to have a bigger impact on the MSMEs.
“They should harmonize and rationalize their assistance and prioritize the provision of financing services like capitalization which is the ultimate need of local business to grow,” he said.
Carbon said these enterprises cannot fully use the skills being developed by DTI and other agencies through trainings without the financial means to start a business.
The 8th Business Week, which showcases products from the trading, fashion and accessories, gift and home decoration, and furnishing sectors as well as in food, will run until Sunday.