Don’t forget the MSMEs
As Filipinos anticipate the easing of lockdown measures across the country and the resumption of economic activity, a business leader asks of financial institutions: Please support the small players.“Moving forward, credit [will be] very important to [micro, small and medium enterprises],” said Joey Concepcion, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder, in an interview on the ABS-CBN News Channel on Thursday. “Hopefully, our banks will support them with lending, or even restructuring the interest rates.”
Some of the MSMEs identified by Concepcion are “sari-sari” (neighborhood variety) stores, “carinderia” (roadside eateries) and wet and dry markets, which he said were all vital to the business sector’s supply chain.
“They are the ones who bring the supply all the way down to the barangay. They are actually the conduits to reaching different communities,” Concepcion said.
He added that failure to aid MSMEs would result in the collapse of 96 percent of the business sector—something which the country, obviously, cannot afford.
Aside from small businesses, Concepcion also noted the need for workers to start earning again—provided they are healthy and take the necessary health precautions. Immunity, he said, is vital not just to combat new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but all other viruses.Addressing a comment he made in a webinar the past week about the poor having better immunity, Concepcion clarified that this was merely a general observation not just by him, but of people who frequent urban poor areas—that the disease merely appears to be less prevalent in such places.
In addition to this call for support for MSMEs, Concepcion reiterated the need for continuous testing, something which Go Negosyo is spearheading through its Project ARK (antibody rapid-testing kits). The private sector-led project is anchored on the combined efforts of the government and businesses to make massive testing possible at the community level. The project will also launch a data-driven initiative and testing protocol that will help identify persons with antibodies against the virus and possible convalescent plasma donors.
Project ARK held its pilot run on April 24 in Sampaloc, Manila, and will be rolled out in all cities in the National Capital Region, said Concepcion, making use of donated rapid-testing kits. From May 15 to June, he added that they expect to procure close to a million kits, which could then be used by private companies to test their employees. As of Thursday, Concepcion said in another TV interview on One News PH, that around 135-140 companies have already signed up for testing under Project ARK.
Massive testing, he also said, would allow industries deemed safe to resume operations. “Businesses will be disrupted. They will have to adjust to see how viable they are,” Concepcion said.
Concepcion emphasized, however, that testing shouldn’t be a one-time thing; it’s something that should be done regularly, at least until there is a definitive solution to the global health crisis.
“Even if we move down to a moderate community quarantine, I don’t think that should be the end of testing,” he said. “To me … more testing should be done.”
For companies worried about the cost of testing, he said Project ARK’s test kits cost only P400 each. Ideally, however, companies should be testing employees twice a month, he added, so as to identify the sick and have them isolated, whether in their own homes or in quarantine centers.
“I believe in [National Task Force COVID-19 chief implementer] Secretary [Carlito Galvez Jr.’s] strategy to isolate. We need to isolate the sick. You cannot stop testing. You cannot stop isolating,” he said.
Ultimately, Concepcion said vigilance was key for businesses, if they want to avoid another lockdown.
“The expenses on test kits, masks, are less compared to a total shutdown of business,” he said. INQ
