SMEs

Many months back, in my column entitled Victory, I somehow said that the Philippines will soon be rerated as investment grade with the continuing surge or inflow of OFW remittances. This has led our Gross International Reserves to hit a record-high $69 billion, which is 10.3 months worth of imports, and surpasses our gross external…

Saying there is a need for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be represented in the crafting of major economic policies, the National Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA) called on the government to have a proactive stance for their development and growth.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport) is strongly supporting the proposed amendatory law making incentives to micro enterprises more accessible than those offered by the Baranggay Micro Enterprise Act of 2002.

EXPERTS IN a symposium on “technopreneurship” and entrepreneurship education last year called on small businesses to take advantage of services offered by the government and industry groups to help boost the economy and create more jobs.

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) are the most bullish about the opportunities in their own country compared to other Asian SMEs, according to the UPS Asia Business Monitor (ABM) 2010 findings.  

EVEN SMALL businesses have to adapt to unavoidable changes in climate and help mitigate their adverse effects, experts said in a forum organized by the Institute for Small-Scale Industries at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman early this month.

COMPETITIVENESS issues continue to hound small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines but they are also among the most upbeat in the region, a United Parcel Service (UPS) survey showed.

SMALL and medium enterprises (SMEs) have turned more optimistic about economic prospects this year, according to two separate surveys on Thursday. In its 2010 Asia Business Monitor, UPS said about three-fourths of the SMEs polled expect “more opportunities” for domestic growth this year.

MOST SMALL and medium enterprises in the Philippines are upbeat on domestic business prospects, resulting in a potential expansion in capital spending and hiring of more employees, according to separate survey results released yesterday by two multinational firms.

Supply chain management (SCM) has always been associated with large organizations (LOs). Although small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are part of the supply chain in both inbound and outbound logistics, focus on SCM has always been from the perspective of LOs.

The government will streamline its small and medium enterprise (SME) development efforts by placing all bureaus and agencies mandated to help the sector “under one roof.” On the sidelines of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines Inc. (FINEX) general membership meeting on Wednesday, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo told reporters that eight agencies have overlapping…

DESPITE improving official export figures, the small and medium enterprise (SME) sub-sector is bucking a plan to cancel the release of money meant to help them tide over the global financial crisis and realign this amount to the government’s El Niño Calamity Fund. The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) said its Cebu chapter submitted a…

Given the archipelagic nature of the country, it has always concerned me that there is so little government attention being given to improve the use of our waterways for the transportation of people and goods, or for that matter, in the crafting of laws that would encourage industries related to shipping.

Acting without design, occupying oneself without making a business of it, finding the great in what is small and the many in the few, repaying injury with kindness, effecting difficult things while they are easy, and managing great things in their beginnings; this is the method of Tao. —Lao Tzu

THE Board of Investments (BOI) is dropping the “contingency list” from the 2010 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP), after the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) declared that the economic crisis ended last year.

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will soon allow all banks to provide microfinancing to the agriculture sector as part of efforts to spur lending in the countryside, BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said over the weekend.

THE Department of Finance will launch the National Strategy and the Regulatory Framework for Microinsurance on January 29 with the theme “Magpaseguro Para Protektado.” The milestone documents will outline the government’s policy thrusts and directions in providing the poor access to insurance products and services.

MANILA, Philippines – Microfinance enjoyed strong growth in financing from a widening pool of donors and investors last year, according to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).

MANILA, Philippines – The season of gift-giving has shoppers slowly filling bazaars and malls by the thousands. But for those who are digitally savvy, the convenience of online shopping has been saving them effort, money, and time.

GOVERNMENT financial institutions (GFIs) have released as much as P170.3 billion in loans for nearly 150,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) under the SULONG Program since 2004, according to SB Corp., the program’s lead convenor.

For at least 30 years, the main obstacle to developing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has been access to capital, an officer of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) told The Manila Times Thursday. “The financial system is awash with liquidity, but the funds are not flowing to SMEs,” Francisco Floro, vice president…

THE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) wants the government to set up a development fund to assist micro, small, and medium enterprises (SMEs) amid the recent typhoons and global economic crisis.

MANILA, Philippines – The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the business information arm of The Economist Group, ranked the Philippines third overall worldwide in terms of microfinance business environment.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines ranked third in a global survey on microfinance, even topping the category on regulatory framework, a new report released by the International Finance Corp. (IFC) showed.

Making businesses grow need not always require huge investments. This is what we have learned when we studied nine out of some 350 micro, small and medium-scale enterprises currently assisted by the Business Advisory Program (BAP) of Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP).

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country have to deal with lack of an enabling environment, access to finance and markets and productivity, Rhodora Leaño, the director of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development, said during a roundtable at The Manila Times on Friday.

People in the provinces today are less poor than they were a couple of decades ago, thanks to the redistribution of incomes brought about mostly by the dispersal of economic activity, specifically of SMEs, but this is not to say that everyone is now well off in the rural areas. It would be safe to…

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said it shut the operations of 70 establishments, mostly small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) nationwide, for failing to pay correct taxes.

The large regionally diversified rural sector must be mobilized in terms of the accelerated growth of both agricultural and non-agricultural employment and output-creating activities over a widely diversified area of the Philippines. The urban industrial sector, which is still relatively small and heavily concentrated, must be dispersed and allowed to look outward toward the export…

MANILA, Philippines – Local entrepreneurship is on the rise, with total sales for the government initiated One Town One Project (OTOP) Luzon Island Fair more than doubling to P29.5 million, from P14.3 million a year ago.