DTI sees more MSMEs resuming operation

by Louella Desiderio (The Philippine Star), 13 Jul 2021

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) expects the number of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic to go down in the coming months, provided there would be no shift to stricter quarantine restrictions.

“We see that improving as long as we continue the GCQ (general community quarantine) we have now in many areas,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said in a press conference yesterday.

Based on the latest survey covering 33,145 respondents conducted by the DTI, 10 percent of MSMEs remain closed as of June amid the pandemic.

Lopez said however that this was an improvement from the 16 percent that closed their operations in May based on a survey covering 24,087 MSMEs.

He said the percentage of MSMEs that were closed even reached over 30 percent last year and went down to four percent in February this year.

The number rose to 16 percent in May after the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus was placed under the strictest quarantine classification or enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in March and modified ECQ in April.

To avoid any surge in COVID-19 cases that would lead to imposition of stricter quarantine measures, Lopez said it is necessary for the public to continue to observe minimum health protocols and to get vaccinated.

“The key is vaccination and compliance of the public so we do not have a surge [in COVID-19 cases] and we do not go back to ECQ,” he said.

NCR, Bulacan and Rizal are under GCQ with restrictions, while Laguna and Cavite are on GCQ with heightened restrictions until July 15.

Lopez also encouraged establishments to get their employees vaccinated as this would help increase consumer confidence.

“Consumers would not have fears going to establishments if they know that 100 percent of the workers are vaccinated,” he said.

He said while there is currently no policy on allowing establishments with 100 percent of their employees vaccinated to operate at a higher capacity, it is a matter the government could look into.

“That is a policy that we can discuss in IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases),” he said.