Credit bureau for SMEs proposed

Trade and Industry Secretary Cesar V. Purisima is proposing the creation of a Small and Medium Enterprise Credit Bureau.

The proposed SME Credit Bureau would be similar to the Credit Investigation Bureau Inc. (CIBI) which monitors big corporations and financial institutions.

Having an SME Credit Bureau, Purisima explained, would help SMEs avail loans from the banks.

Purisima noted that the lack of adequate information about SMES is one of the reasons why banks are hesitant to lend to SMES.

"The proposed SME Credit Bureau should be privately owned with government only providing help in building up a data base," Purisima stressed.

Government, he said, could also look into providing some sort of technical assistance for the SME Credit Bureau.

The SME Credit Bureau concept, Purisima admitted, still has to be studied more thoroughly.

Purisima has been aggressively pushing the SME sector and the Department of Trade and Industry recently unveiled its roadmap for the sector.

The proposed industry centers for SME include processed food, furniture, inter-regional alliance, packaging development, agro-fisheries and marine industry development.

Government strategies for the development of the SME sector would be on an enterprise level, sector level and broad level.