www.smedsep.ph - What's New - as of June 6, 2005
sme...@mozcom.com
SMEDSEP Program Management has taken on an intern to support until
mid-August 2005. Myriam Fernando will focus on Monitoring, specifically
on assessing how to establish baseline data on SMEsin SMEDSEP's pilot
cities and evaluating the feasibility of integrating our political
partners' monitoring needs into the SMEDSEP monitoring system.
Enabling Environment
The results of the studies on improving business licensing procedures
in Bacolod and Ormoc cities and the ensuing results from the Action
Planning Workshops were presented to the Department of Interior and
Local Government (DILG) and the DTI's Bureau of Small and Medium
Sized Enterprise Development (BSMED) in Manila. Both agencies were
interested in the results and have committed to continue improving
business licensing in cities. A main agreement on the debriefing is to
prepare a 'best practices handbook' of business registration, to be
carried out by Ateneo under SMEDSEP in the coming months.
A seminar on Shaping an Enabling Business and Investment Climate will
be organized by SMEDSEP in Manila from July 25-28, 2005. The Asian-wide
seminar will be attended by international and regional experts focusing
on how to make investment reforms work. Registration of participants is
ongoing until June 15, 2005.
Local and Regional Economic Development
Last May 20, a Memorandum of Agreement was signed by GTZ and DTI with
the Local Government Units of Ormoc, Carigara, Palompon and Baybay. The
results of the Business Licensing Action Planning Workshop in Ormoc
were included in the MoA.
Business Development Services and Demand-Driven Technical Vocation and
Education Training
Mr. Gottfried Hilz-Ward presented findings on his recommendations for a
Tourism Master Plan for Negros Occidental. Watch this space for his
report.
DDTVET has finished conducting interviews with pre-selected training
providers regarding the assistance that SMEDSEP can offer them (e.g.
technical assistance, capability build-up). Letters of Intent have been
received from interested service providers which SMEDSEP will then
assess and select. The BDS component is doing the same for pre-selected
business development service providers.
Baseline data collection and BDS Provider Mapping has been done for
Cebu, while it is still ongoing for Negros Occidental. The data will
assist SMEDSEP in monitoring and evaluating changes that will result
from its business development service interventions.
For DDTVET, a Creative Writer has been selected to design and conduct a
training course on writing commentaries and scripts for destinations in
standard tour packages. Ms. Fran Ng will be conducting the writeshop in
mid-June.
Financial Services
A national long-term expert for Financial Services, Mr. Dante Portula,
joined the SMEDSEP team on May 9. Mr. Portula will be based in Cebu.
Mr. Lutz Grashof is currently in the country conducting SME Credit
Training for Loan Officers in Negros Occidental.
The building up of the SME Credit Department and development of the
credit manual with the New Rural Bank of Victoria and Nation Bank is
likewise ongoing in Negros Occidental.
In an effort to strengthen linkages, the component managers of BDS
(Markus Ehmann) and FS (Harald Neimeier), recently concluded a Study
Trip mission to Indonesia and presented the outcomes at the Rural
Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) National Convention in
Manila.
Thank you for your continuing interest in the DTI-TESDA-GTZ SMEDSEP
Program.
For more information about SMEDSEP click on www.smedsep.ph