Aquino pushes passage of Go Negosyo bill

MANILA, Philippines - In a country where the population continuously grows at a fast pace, the need to come up with more jobs is always a concern for the government.

For neophyte Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, the key to providing new jobs for the people is to develop one particular sector of the economy that could have a huge impact on improving the lives of many Filipinos.

Following through on his advocacy to promote small businesses as a viable solution to poverty in the country, Aquino has steered what was dubbed as the Go Negosyo bill on its way to its approval on second reading in the Senate.

Aquino, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, has sponsored Senate Bill 2046, which consolidates the bill that he filed with the related bills filed by Senators Sergio Osmeña III, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Jinggoy Estrada, and Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto.

In his sponsorship speech, Aquino said that the Go Negosyo bill was crafted to “help our countrymen out of poverty and towards a path to prosperity.”

According to Aquino, the bill was also a response to the challenge made to the administration to make the much-touted growth of the economy more meaningful to the masses by making it more inclusive.

Aquino noted that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) play a key role in addressing poverty for a significant number of Filipinos, considering that the sector represents 92 percent of all businesses in the country.

MSMEs also account for 66 percent of all jobs in the country, which Aquino said shows the huge potential of this sector for achieving the objective of generating employment and additional income for most households.

“The numbers show that boosting the MSME sector will help us create more decent, sustainable jobs that can lift many Filipinos out of poverty,” Aquino said.

“We need programs that will enable micro enterprises to enter the formal economy. Our goal should be to help them graduate into SMEs (small and medium enterprises) so that they grow and generate revenue and jobs for our communities,” he added.

The Go Negosyo bill calls for the establishment of Negosyo Centers by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development (MSMED) Council across the country to help those who want to set up their own MSMEs with all of the documentary requirements and to provide all the information they need on how to achieve success in a start-up business.

The bill also addresses the biggest challenge faced by start-ups, which is access to financing, particularly securing loans from banks.