www.smedsep.ph What's New as of as of 24 July 2006

[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 24 July 2006

SMEDSEP Participation in DTI’s National SME Development Week

The DTI celebrated its annual SME Week with a series of activities which GTZ-SMEDSEP participated in.

Donor’s Forum: ODA Donors Meet to Harmonize Assistance to SME Sector
Last July 19, key decision-makers from the Department of Trade and Industry and representatives from the largest donor organizations gathered together to examine progress made on how donor assistance on improving the local investment climate for SMEs has been harmonized.

The Program started with Ms. Zorayda Amelia Alonzo, DTI Undersecretary for SME Development, briefly presenting the National SME Development Plan 2004-2010. Usec. Alonzo stressed the importance of partnering with donors to create a bigger impact on SME Development. This was followed by a Common Presentation of Donor Organization on the “Convergence of Donor Assistance towards Developing the SME Sector in the Philippines”, presented by GTZ-SMEDSEP Program Manager Martina Vahlhaus on behalf of all donor organizations working in SME Development. Ms. Vahlhaus focused on how several donors (ADB, Asian Foundation, USAID, CIDA, GTZ, KFW, IFC, JICA and ILO) have aligned their programs with the Philippine Government’s National SMED Plan. DTI Secretary Peter Favila then reiterated how the country’s SMEs, which comprise 99% of domestic companies, are a key to poverty alleviation and remain a priority for the President. (Read the press release here).

The event was capped off with a pair of Memoranda of Agreement signings by DTI and two donor agencies:

• DTI and CIDA on Piloting the Harmonization of the SMED Plan across the country;
• DTI and GTZ on Implementing Phase II of SMEDSEP

Opening Ceremonies of the SMED Week Exhibit
On July 19-23, the annually celebrated SMED Week Exhibit took place. The official opening included a recognition of donor contribution to SME Development given by Secretary Favila. German Ambassador Axel Weishaupt received the award on behalf of the umbrella of German donor contributions known as German Development Cooperation (GTZ, InWENT, DED, KFW, CIM). Later on, the President of the Republic of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, graced the event and made a statement highlighting the importance of SMEs in her commitment to raising 6-10 million jobs by 2010.

 

 

SMEDSEP Component Updates

Enabling Environment

• 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.
• Meanwhile, the filming of the audiovisual documentary by the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC) has been completed and is currently undergoing editing and production work. Complementing the Handbook, the A/V Presentation presentation highlights lessons learned for business licensing in SMEDSEP’s pilot cities of Bacolod and Ormoc. Both the Handbook and Audiovisual documentary are slated to be ready in September.
• GTZ supported DTI in coming out with a monitoring report to assess how the SMED Action Plan has fared so far until June 2006. The report was written to give feedback to the National SMED Council on ‘what has been done so far’ in time for the SME Development Week.

 

Local and Regional Economic Development

• In its commitment to building up the capacity of the local private sector, SMEDSEP recently facilitated the Strategic Planning Workshop for the Ormoc Chamber of Commerce and Industries to come up with a 1-year doable operational plan to help the Chamber become more effective and efficient.
• The evaluation of 9 Lighthouse projects (implemented in the context of LRED) was conducted last month by an external consultant. The findings reveal that while the results so far are positive, a follow up on the implementation to make the projects viable and sustainable is needed. The report is currently being finalized and will be uploaded to this site soon.
• On July 18, GTZ in partnership with DTI and TESDA hosted an LRED Forum in Tacloban City. As a culminating activity and part of the dissemination strategy of the LRED approach, the Forum was held to showcase the LRED concept, tools developed, experiences rendered (specifically the quick-wins of the ‘lighthouse projects’) and lessons learned so far. Attended by LGUs from all over Leyte, as well as stakeholders from the public and private sector and donor community, the said 1-day LRED Forum was intended to foster a better understanding of LRED process and provide a venue for exchange of experiences in LRED, with LGU Heads themselves talking about the lessons learned from implementing LRED. Watch this space for more information on the outcomes of the said event.

 

Business Development Services and Demand-Driven Training

• The Negros Island Tourism, Inc. (NITI) wants to focus on improving its ‘branding’, which will be “Negros Adventure”. As such, SMEDSEP will turn its attention to coaching, supporting and monitoring NITI’s marketing plan, focusing on branding process support (developing the logos, establishing market)
• SMEDSEP is pleased to note that its supported Business Development Service Providers are themselves taking the lead in pushing Negros as Tourism Destination, as seen in the following: (1) NITI acting as the main arm for pushing tourism in Negros with the Department of Tourism; and (2) Sugarland Hotel (Bacolod, Negros Occidental) taking a vital leap in improving its marketing strategy by taking on the assistance Yes Services, a SMEDSEP-supported service provider
• As mentioned in the previous newsletter, a Marketing Plan Development training for SMEDSEP’s supported service providers took place in Negros Occidental and Cebu. As an output, the service providers came up with their own marketing plans. Coaching and monitoring will be provided by SMEDSEP to help them implement the plans.
• Likewise, another training was conducted last month, but this time for our government partners. The Service Market Development Training Course, attended by partners from DTI and TESDA, proved to be a success. Service Market Development, the paradigm from which SMEDSEP draws its approach in pursuing private sector development, 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. The participants claimed that they had a better understanding of the BDS approach and its interventions, and came up with Action Plans on how to apply their learning from the short course.

 

Financial Services

• Two international consultancy assignments have just taken place or will soon take place, focusing on coaching SMEDSEP partner banks on international best practices on SME Finance:
  • Heiki Blaesig will be back in the country in August to coach partner banks on SME Credit Pricing
  • Michael Schneider is currently in the country to coach SMEDSEP’s 9 anchor banks on implementing the SME credit manual and best practices
• SMEDSEP is also providing coaching and monitoring support to anchor banks on their usage of the SME best practices they have been trained on, most recent of which is the credit appraisal procedures and adaptation of the credit scoring tool. SMEDSEP is pleased to find that Fair Bank is fully using the credit scoring tool as they find that the results are more efficient - they can decide which application should they spend more time on. Bank Victorias is still customizing the instrument, but similar benefits are hoped for. This was done with the help of Anja Peters, who was in the country last May to help develop models of credit scoring systems which are designed to make it easier for banks to see which are the ‘high-risk’ loans that ought to be avoided.
• Talks with InWent (www.inwent.org.ph) on the institutionalization of financial services capacity-building programs are ongoing, particularly as regards InWent’s intention to provide training on Credit Scoring Systems for banks.
• Also, SMEDSEP’s FS component is planning a new mission to conduct a quick survey (based on secondary data) of the SME market for Banks. The study aims to determine “where are the SMEs?” so that banks might know where to find them, and eventually, how to attract them.

 

Trade Policy and Trade Promotion Project

• GTZ sponsored the Philippine Retirement Industry and Investment Summit, which was organized by the Philippine Retirement Inc. last July 3, 2006 at the Shangri-La Hotel, Makati City. The purpose of this summit was to formulate the strategic roadmap for developing and promoting the Philippines as a destination for foreign retirees.
• The services component has also published Health Briefs 1, 2 and 3.
• The services component also collaborated with the EU Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) Project to sponsor a workshop on training on GATS negotiations for transport officials. The key resource person was Dr. Floros Stasinopoulos former EU negotiator for transport and energy. This was held as part of the 7th session of the GTZ GATS Training Course on Trade in Services last June 23, 2006 at the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

 

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