www.smedsep.ph What's New as of as of 6 February 2005

[SMEDSEP]

 

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 6 February 2005

DTI, GTZ and TESDA met in Bacolod City last January 18-19 to plan and agree on the annual milestones, detailed operational plans and monitoring for Region 6, with DTI being mainly responsible for orchestrating the achievement of program milestones set for January-August 2006. Much interest was focused on modularizing SMEDSEP’s experiences from the 1 st phase so that these can be replicated across other provinces. Similar workshops will take place in the other pilot regions (February 10 for Region 7 and February 15 for Region 8).

As the current program phase of SMEDSEP ends in August 2006, the program has already kick-started efforts to steer the strategy for the Second Phase (September 2006-August 2009). To initiate the Strategic Planning Process for the Second Phase, DTI-national and regional representatives, together with a few GTZ representatives, participated in a strategic planning meeting for the new phase last February 3.  The results of that meeting will be shared and discussed with partners from DTI and TESDA and other organizations on March 1-2, 2006 at a regional planning meeting. Simon White, expert on Local Investment Climate, will provide inputs to help SMEDSEP stakeholders draw up regional strategies for the future. 

Enabling Environment

• In a recent visit to Ormoc, SMEDSEP monitored the number of steps it takes to register a business in the city. The Program is pleased to find that steps have so far been reduced from 17 to 7 steps, which took around 17 days to accomplish down to an average of 2-3 days.
• Meanwhile in Bacolod, business registration steps have been trimmed down from 19 to 15 steps, and from 15 days to an average of 1-2 days.
• DTI, through the Bureau of Small and Medium Enterprise Development (BSMED), wants to set up a Task Force on producing a Handbook on Best Practices on Business Registration which they hope will help LGUs. BSMED is keen to showcase examples of cities which have been successful in streamlining business registration, such as the lessons learned from Ormoc city.
• GTZ has been supporting the Asian Institute of Management’s Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project (PCCRP), a survey regularly conducted by the AIM to help cities take full advantage of their competitiveness potential. On February 13, 2006, AIM will present the results in a national forum, with GTZ-SMEDSEP Program Manager Martina Vahlhaus delivering opening remarks. Results on the Visayan Cities will be presented at a special forum for Visayan stakeholders, also being supported by GTZ, on March 24, 2006 in Cebu city.

Local and Regional Economic Development

• DTI and GTZ made a round of visits to all 9 lighthouse projects in Leyte to monitor their progress. So far all projects are on track, though the program acknowledges that the projects are only part of a long-term development plan which has just begun. Some of the projects are so committed, such as Ormoc City’s earmarking a big chunk of his budget to the development of cold storage facility for Ormoc and tourism for Lake Danao tourism.

Business Development Services and Demand-Driven Technical Vocation and Education Training

• In Negros Occidental, the newly-registered Negros Island Tourism, Inc. (NITI) has set-up its own office at the Convention Plaza Hotel. NITI, with the help of an international tourism expert, is developing its marketing plan focusing on do-able actions for the year. The company will formally be launched on March 3.
• In Cebu, plans for a Cebu business portal are currently under discussion with the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCCI). As a leading private sector representative in Cebu, CCCI will decide whether developing and operating a virtual business development service market makes sense or not.
• As regards the selected BDS and Training providers in Cebu and Negros Occidental, SMEDSEP is busy assisting the providers in developing their work plans on their products. Apart from that, one of SMEDSDEP’s interventions is to help these partner-providers develop their marketing strategies; as such, the Program is on the lookout for a marketing strategy specialist to assist us in this endeavor.
• Some of the partner-providers have already launched or are in the process of launching their new products. For example, in Cebu, a Training for Trainers’ seminar on IT software Development will be conducted on February 8-9 at the University of San Juan Recoletos. The city’s Interface Computer College is also launching one of the products developed with SMEDSEP’s assistance (computer-aided design and drafting).
• SMEDSEP is also involved in the upcoming the 2 nd IT Summit in Cebu , entitled Cebu Silion Island 2015. As the name suggests, the event, slated in March, is trying to foster Cebu as a ‘ Silicon Valley’. Since IT is SMEDSEP’s pilot sector in Cebu, the Program will get involved by providing facilitation at the summit.
• A unified accreditation scheme is also being developed in collaboration with TESDA for the trainings being offered by the selected partner providers.

Financial Services

• Critical SME lending legal aspects have now been integrated into the SME Credit Manuals being used by rural banks. These include provisions on Magna Carta (RA 6977) and the PD 717. Excerpts of the legal provisions are found below:
  • Republic Act 6977 (as amended by RA 8289) otherwise known as Magna Carta for Small Enterprises – shall set aside at least six percent (6%) and at least two percent (2%) for small and medium enterprises lending, respectively, of their total loan portfolio.
  • Presidential Decree 717 , Providing an Agrarian Reform Credit and Financing System for Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Through Banking Institutions – All banking institutions, whether government or private, shall set aside at least twenty-five per cent (25%) of their loan-able funds for agricultural credit in general, of which at least ten per cent (10%) of the loan-able funds shall be made available for agrarian reform credit.
  • The participants of the FS-BDS Knowledge Management study tour to Indonesia are using
• Participants of the FS-BDS knowledge management study tour to Indonesia are keen to share their experiences from the study tour that took place last December. Delegates will discuss lessons learned, possible recommendations, and how to move these ideas forward via a national level workshop meeting, to be comprised of national decision makers from the likes of DTI’s Small Business Corporation, rural bank association, chamber of thrift banks, etc.. The lessons learned and experiences will then be shared with regional decision makers (such as the federation of rural banks).

Trade Project

• The trade in aquaculture component held 3 stakeholder workshops entitled Enhancing Market Access of Aquaculture Products to the European Union in Tacloban, Cebu, and Iloilo.

 

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