Speaking at the United Nations workshop, "Unleashing Entrepreneurship: Making Business Work for the Poor," De Castro said surveys have shown that 91.6 percent of enterprises in the country are microenterprises, 7.6 percent small enterprises, 0.4 percent are medium, and another 0.4 percent are large enterprises.
"This situation where only a minuscule part of business belongs to the small businessmen sadly demonstrate the wide gap between big, small businesses in the country that also depicts that widening income disparity among Filipinos," he said.
De Castro said 23,509,648 Filipinos, or 30.4 percent of the population, were found to be living below the poverty line in 2003.
"It was the reality of widespread poverty that pushed the United Nations led by Secretary General Kofi Annan to take a good look at the experiences of countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa," he said.
"And what the UN found is that where there is strong private investment, there is sustained economic growth. The answer to poverty, it appeared, is in the hands of private entrepreneurship."
De Castro said the country’s medium-term development plan had helped create shelter for 382,285 households between 2001 and 2004.
"I strongly believe that our efforts and undertakings, and the gains we have made so far, give us a glimpse of the greater gains we can achieve in the fight against poverty, if we fully unleash the power of private entrepreneurship," he said.
About four million houses are to be built this year until 2010 for people who do not own their own homes and the 588,853 so-called informal settlers, De Castro said.