DTI on the hunt for sound MSMEs

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will be creating teams that will go around depressed communities in rural areas to help strengthen the potential of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

“This means that our people will go out. Entrepreneurs will be able to get assistance not only within the Go Negosyo Centers. If we have additional budget, we can assign some people who will go to the communities that have potential MSMEs,” Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said Friday.

Lopez explained the DTI personnel would be providing business development support for MSMEs, specifically on how they can market and sell their products to bigger markets. The agency would be beefing up its staff by equipping members with the different business competencies needed in mentoring MSMEs.

This new initiative formed part of the programs that the DTI has lined up and would be implementing over the next six years, in line with the Duterte administration’s thrust toward developing rural areas and alleviating poverty.

“We now want to see an execution of the programs we started. We want more improvements on product development, design. And to do this, we plan to increase the shared services facilities. We will also provide our MSMEs with market access by giving them more exposure through Go Lokal and trade exhibits,” Lopez explained.

Go Lokal is the DTI’s brand of quality products from the One Town One Product program. The plan is to showcase the products in some of the country’s major malls with high foot traffic and allow MSMEs to gain a domestic market. This is seen to help the small enterprises prepare for the bigger markets overseas.

The DTI will also aggressively seek to provide more access to financing for local enterprises and link the MSMEs to bigger corporations through the “Kapatid” project. Under this mentoring program, large corporations are encouraged to adopt an inclusive business model by engaging the low income communities as partners, customers, suppliers, and employees in their supply chains.

There are now moves to institutionalize the said program into law, which will be providing fiscal incentives to qualified companies.

“This is good for our economy because once the MSMEs get big, they would have higher incomes and their contribution will increase,” Lopez added.