PCCI pushes bill to protect property rights of SMEs

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is urging government to harmonize processes of agencies and to pass into law the Land Administration Reform Act, Valuation Reform and National Land Use Act to protect property rights of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and allow them to grow.

In a statement, PCCI president Miguel Varela said the government needs to improve its system to ensure coherent and consistent coordination between national and local government units on issues related to property rights.

Varela said the implementation of key provisions of the M(micro) SME Magna Carta and the enactment of Land Administration Reform Act, Valuation Reform and Land Use laws would help promote the growth of SMEs.

“We note that these bills will provide harmonized and standardized process of promoting real property transactions in the Philippines, therefore ensuring a more friendly and competitive business environment for our SMEs and other enterprises to flourish and grow,” he said.

“There certainly (is) a need to institute reforms and harmonize some of the processes of various government agencies if we want to improve our competitiveness rankings, improve the way we do business, lower the cost of business transactions and make our SMEs globally competitive,” he also said.

In line with the push to introduce reforms and improve processes for property rights protection of SMEs, the PCCI through the support of the Center for International Private Enterprise will hold a forum next week to present the underlying challenges and reforms instituted to strengthen conditions for the sector.

The forum will also have discussions on increasing access to credit of SMEs.

The PCCI said it is set to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Trade and Industry during the forum to strengthen coordination between national government agencies and local agencies, as well as local chambers in facilitating policy reforms and providing assistance to promote SME real property rights protection and access to financing.

Access to financing has been identified as one of the challenges faced by SMEs in the country.

According to the Small Business Corp., loans extended by government-owned financial institutions to SMEs through the Access of Small Enterprises to Sound Lending Opportunities reached P30.4 billion last year, 13.4 percent higher than in 2011.