www.smedsep.ph What's New as of as of 26 May 2006
DTI TESDA GTZ SMEDSEP Program
This is the Monthly Email Newsletter
of the DTI-TESDA-GTZ SMEDSEP
Program.
Visit our website at
www.smedsep.ph for more
information.
As of 26 May 2006
New GTZ-DED Cooperation
Office!
The
German Technical Agency for Cooperation (GTZ),
through the Small and Medium Enterprise Development for Sustainable
Employment Program (SMEDSEP) and the German Development Service
(DED), officially inaugurated its cooperation office last
May 23, 2006, at the 2/ F Ormoc Centrum Building , Ormoc City
.
The SMEDSEP-GTZ will be cooperating with the German Development Service (DED*), which has seconded Mr. Rolf Stagge to support the implementation of its projects in Leyte ,following the Local and Regional Economic Development (LRED) approach. Mr. Stagge will be based in Ormoc City and will be working closely with the partners and the SMEDSEP GTZ Coordinator, Ms. Ria Adapon, who is also based in Ormoc City . GTZ extends a warm welcome to Mr. Stagge!
Representatives of GTZ SMEDSDEP's political partners from DTI and TESDA (Regions 6, 7, 8), partner banks in Leyte , and LRED stakeholders attended the Inauguration. Dr. Dennis Capuyan , City Administrator of Ormoc City and official representative of Mayor Eric C. Codilla (as host LGU) together with DTI Regional Director Cynthia Nierras (as host Region) cut the ribbon to formally inaugurate the SMEDSEP GTZ-DED Cooperation Office. Public and Private sector officials from the four partner LGUs also graced the event, including Mayor Jose Carlos Cari of Baybay city.
Milestone
Monitoring Meeting
Prior to the Inauguration of the new office,
SMEDSEP had its Milestone Monitoring Meeting to check if implementation is on
track, to draw lessons learned and to revise plans for the rest of the program
phase, which ends in August 2006. DTI and TESDA Directors of Regions 6, 7 and 8
were invited to present and discuss which interventions, from their point of
view, are going well and what needs to be improved for future
implementation.
- The joint DTI-GTZ undertaking, Handbook on Best Practices on Business Registration, which will showcase examples of cities that have been successful in streamlining business registration, is currently being developed by the Development Academy of the Philippines and will hopefully be ready by July.
- Meanwhile, the filming of the audiovisual documentary by the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC) has been completed. Complementing the Handbook, the AVR presentation highlights lessons learned for business licensing in SMEDSEP's pilot cities of Bacolod and Ormoc. SMEDSEP is pushing for the AVR to be ready in time for the National SME Week in July.
- SMEDSEP partners from Leyte, Mr. Emil
Tingson (Head of Business Permit and Licensing, Ormoc City), and
Mr. Ed Belas (DTI-Leyte Provincial Director) were invited to
share their experiences at the Sub-National Investment Climate
Seminar, an international conference in Indonesia organized by the
International Finance Corporation, the Asia Foundation, and the GTZ,
concerning district-level investment climate issues. Messrs. Tingson and Belas
made excellent presentations (download DTI presentation,
LGU presentation) on how
streamlining business licensing procedures can bring concrete benefits to a
city. Though further observation and testing is warranted, Ormoc city has
already observed the following:
- 84% reduction in number of steps to get the mayor's business license
- 50% reduction in number of forms/documents
- 81% reduction in signatories required
- 63% reduction in average processing time
- Php 675 savings in man hours for application
- Increase in number of registrants
- 22% New Registrants
- 13% Renewed Registrants
Local and Regional Economic Development
- As a follow-up of the first LRED Action Plans carried out in 2005, the 2nd Cycle of LRED Action Planning was completed with the pilot LGUs (Baybay, Carigara, Ormoc, Palompon), focusing on making the “lighthouse projects” more viable and sustainable.
- The Environment and Natural Resource Development Program of GTZ-Phililppines (EnRD), which SMEDSEP has been working with in their adoption of the LRED approach, has selected Tanuan City as the pilot LGU for implementing LRED. At the request of EnRD, SMEDSEP has committed to continue coaching EnRD's partners in Tanuan in integrating the LRED approach, particularly in finalizing their Action Plan.
- The 9 Lighthouse projects undertaken in the context of SMEDSEP are still ongoing. Preparations are underway for the documentation and evaluation of these “quick win” projects so as to come up with a showcase of the LRED experience in Leyte .
Business Development Services and Demand-Driven Training
- As mentioned in our earlier newsletter, the Marketing Plan Development Training for SMEDSEP's supported service providers is currently taking place in Negros Occidental and will subsequently be implemented in Cebu.
- In Negros , plans are on track to implement the new training programs of SMEDSEP-supported partner-providers for the tourism industry: the Enhanced Training on Housekeeping (offered by the Visayas Maritime Academy), and the Asian Culinary Skills Enhancement and Kitchen Management module (offered by La Consolacion College-Bacolod) (see previous update for more information)
- In Cebu , the Cebu Web Portal Business Plan was accepted by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industries. CCCI will now organize a Project Management Team for the portal.
- Furthermore, as follow-up support to SMEDSEP's OD interventions with the CCCI , the latter has sought Mr. Markus Ehmann's assistance (Seniors BDS Advisor for SMEDSEP) to facilitate their Strategic Planning Workshop in July
- An anticipated intervention is the Capability Build-Up of DTI & TESDA on Market Development , the paradigm from which SMEDSEP draws its approach in pursuing private sector development. This paradigm espouses the facilitative role of donor agencies and government in developing service markets. In turn, it assigns the more sustainable provision of business services to the private sector. To equip DTI and TESDA partners with a common, functional understanding and appreciation of the market development approach so as to make them more effective facilitators of private sector development within the context of SMEDSEP or otherwise, GTZ and SDC Asia will be conducting a training course for said partners in June.
- Ongoing is the monitoring of partner-providers' work plans in Cebu and Negros Occidental, including the marketing plan of NITI (Negros Island Tourism, Inc.).
- SMEDSEP recently implemented Credit and Market Risk Management training with the help of GFA consultant Ms. Anja Peters , an International Credit and Market Risk specialist. Participants – mostly comprised of presidents and general managers of rural banks – came from all the pilot provinces of Leyte, Cebu and Negros Occidental.
- Ms. Peters also helped to develop three models of credit scoring systems for FAIR Bank (Cebu); for Leyte/Cebu Rural Banks; and for Negros Occidental Rural Banks. Designed to make banks more efficient at appraising loan applications, these credit scoring systems should make it easier for banks to see which are the ‘high-risk' loans that ought to be avoided.
- Ms. Ulla Toernroos of GFA recently concluded a mission in the Philippines to design a concept for Financial Services for the Second Phase of SMEDSEP, in consultation with partners. Results have already been discussed with DTI's Small Business Corporation, although the final report is not yet available since further discussions with GTZ and InWent headquarters in Germany are necessary. During her mission in the Philippines, Ms. Toernroos worked closely with Ms. Cristina Lozano (consultant for InWent) to design the GTZ-InWent cooperation details on providing training on Credit Scoring Systems for partner banks.
- Ongoing plans of the component include the manualization of the SME credit marketing training Model; coaching of anchor banks on implementing the SME credit manual; and monitoring of anchor banks on implementing SME best practices.
Trade Policy and Trade Promotion Project
- Services Component: The Project is conducting a training course on Trade in Services from May 12 to July 7, 2006. The courses will be conducted every friday at the GTZ Office in Makati. Participants for this training course come from the Department of Transport and Communications (DOTC) and its attached agencies. The objective of this activity is to further the capacities of the participants in services trade, in general, on transport services, in particular.
- Services Component: The Project co-sponsored the Philippine Services Coalition (PSC) fifth Health and Wellness Road Mapping Workshop entitled "Promoting the Philippines for World Class Medical and Health Sciences Education". This workshop was held last May 2, 2006 at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and aimed to identify strategies and action plans related to positioning the competitive edge of the Philippines in health sciences education.
- Services Component: The Project held a focus group discussion (FGD) (fourth in a series of on-going meetings) with the Transport Sector Group for Trade in Services (TSGTS), whose members come from the DOTC and its attached agencies last April 25, 2006. The four main objectives of this meeting were: 1) to get feedback on the transport brief; 2) to agree on the consultation process; 3) to agree on the members of a team of consultants for the compilation of existing data on the transporation sector; and 4) to identify the group's training needs.
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