CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) is requesting President Benigno Aquino III to allocate a certain percentage of the Philippine Charity Sweepstake Office (PCSO) and PAGCOR funds for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
In its request submitted to Aquino, CCCI led the advocacy for SME development to take a share of the multi-million revenue of the PCSO, to further boost economic activities in the country.
The request is also directed to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) office led by Gregory Domingo emphasizing the need of the SMEs for financial access.
The chamber emphasized this particular request despite the presence of the Government Financial Institutions (GFIs), which are also pronouncing the availability of credit access for the small and medium entrepreneurs.
In its formal request, of which copies were distributed to members of the P.Noy economic team and office of the President, CCCI asked the government to channel certain percentage of the net revenue of PCSO and PAGCOR to local chambers of commerce to fund their SME Development and Promotion Programs and Services.
Aside from the channeling of funds to help local chambers to be effective in their promotion for the SME development, CCCI also enumerated another industry concerns such as the mandated wage hikes that are not linked to productivity; food supply chain, and streamlining the business registration processing.
Of the four concerns aired by the Cebu business community, only one issue is now being addressed so far by the government, this is in its current effort to shorten the time and cost of business registration processing through the soon to be launched Philippine Business Registry (PBR) system.
In the food supply chain concern, CCCI pressed the issue on insufficiency of cold facilities and inadequate supply chain from the producers' part.
"Cebu has sufficient storage facilities to support the consumers here. The producing provinces specifically Leyte and Samar are hampered on the insufficiency and inadequacy of supply chain," CCCI said.
The business sector wants the government to facilitate the standardization of containers for produce such as plastic baskets and trays for re-use; lower trucking rates, which can be achieved by maximizing load to and from the destination; lower shipping rates-by maximizing utilization of shipping bottoms or capacity; establish the supply route of various goods via supply chain study on the production side; encourage growers to plant high value crops for the Cebu market; and provide cold storage facilities in priority areas such as Ormoc City, Maasin City in Leyte, and Calbayog City and Catbalogan City in Western Samar.
Meanwhile, in mandated wage issue, CCCI reiterated its call to the government that wage increases should not be mandated and applied across the board. A study should be conducted on a sectoral basis (there are performing and non-performing sectors).
CCCI added that while minimum wage is being increased annually (except for crisis period when increases were suspended)-this system is progressively eroding exporters' competitiveness. (FREEMAN)