Sari-sari owners, vendors urged to get government loans

President Arroyo ordered yesterday an intensified information and promotion campaign to convince micro business entrepreneurs to avail of a loan under her newly launched program for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

With an initial funding of P10 billion, the new program was envisioned by the President as the legacy she would like to leave behind.

The President’s vision was for micro business entrepreneurs, which consist of sidewalk vendors, sari-sari-store owners, kariton-pushers and the like, to eventually grow their ventures to become small enterprises and for small enterprises to become medium-sized businesses.

"So this I believe is an important legacy I will leave behind, the feeling that SMEs can now access those rich funds that are in the banking sector," the President said.

To set the project in motion, Mrs. Arroyo recently signed Executive Order 176 directing government financial institutions (GFIs) to pool and allocate the P10 billion funding for her administration’s so-called "Isang Bayan, Isang Produkto, isang Milyong Piso" Program for the SMEs.

This, she said, will stimulate local economic activities all over the country within the remaining 16 months of her administration.

The rules and implementing guidelines for the loan program are now being prepared.

Mrs. Arroyo particularly issued her directive to Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Manuel Roxas II and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye, who joined her in an informal joint conference with the newly inducted officers of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) and the Malacañang Press Corps.

"At the end of six months, what we’d like people to say in general is that there is much money in SMEs, there are many assistance to the SMEs. We want to have that perception," Mrs. Arroyo told Palace reporters. – Marichu Villanueva