Asean Business Advisory Council (ABAC) chairman Joey Concepcion called for an alliance of the country’s business groups in order to help push streamline programs geared towards inclusivity.
Concepcion made this announcement on Tuesday at the Manila Polo Club where at least 14 business groups were invited for the initiative. Concepcion expects the number to still grow in the coming months.
As a long-term private sector-led campaign, the group that would be called Alliance Towards Prosperity For All would help develop a national platform for the development of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
“What I’m proposing is we form an alliance of all the chambers and associations to really pursue inclusivity,” he said.
Concepcion said some ideas had already been thrown around, with the alliance seen to banner a campaign to shift the budget for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to smaller entrepreneurs and to urge companies to allocate funds for MSME development.
He said the alliance would have to come up with a consensus on what they would want to do with the CCT budget, a program originally meant to provide the much needed assistance to poor Filipino families.
As influencers and movers of the economy, the alliance would have the platform to raise the suggestions to Cabinet members all the way to President Duterte.
Concepcion, who is also the presidential adviser for entrepreneurship, said this was part of the initiatives to “help those who help themselves”—a claim which may draw criticisms from activists who have said that hard work alone is not enough to unshackle oneself from poverty.