MANILA, Philippines - The government needs to increase its assistance to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to make them competitive in the region and al- low them to move up the value chain and export finished goods.
Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., said during the Workshop on Market Access for SMEs that even as more than half of the country’s exports over the past five years went to the Southeast Asian region, these are mostly intermediate products.
“Exporting finished goods will indeed be a huge challenge, especially considering that we have simi- lar products,” he said.
Ortiz-Luis noted that MSMEs need help with the upcoming Association of the Southeast Asian Na- tions (ASEAN) economic integration.
“The MSME sector is anticipating [bearing] the brunt of the influx of imported products especially if they will be left to fend for themselves,” he said.
As such, the government has to extend more support for the sector to overcome market entry difficulties.
Ortiz-Luis said the government through the Department of Trade and Industry, could work with business organizations to come up with programs to assist MSMEs in terms of securing credit from banks, capacity building, improving labor and quality stan- dards, trade facilitation through one-stop export and import documentation, as well as participation in for- eign and local trade exhibits, and online marketing.
He said it would also be important for the govern- ment to pursue reforms to reduce the costs of doing business.
Domestic reforms could enable local industries and exporters to hold their own against their better- equipped foreign counterparts, he explained.