www.smedsep.ph What's New as of as of 20 March 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 20 March 2006

The First Quarter of 2006 saw SMEDSEP preoccupied with both operational planning for 2006 and strategic planning. By the end of February, all Operational Planning Workshops for Regions 6, 7 and 8 were completed, with DTI taking over the main responsibility for orchestrating the achievement of program milestones set for January-August 2006.

From February 23-March 3, Simon White, international expert on Local Investment Climate, and Julius Spatz, Investment Climate expert from GTZ-headquarters, were in the Philippines to provide input as well as to solicit ideas for conceptualizing the second phase of SMEDSEP (September 2006-August 2009). Messrs White and Spatz had the task of drawing up what is called a Program Offer to the BMZ, the German ministry that will then finalize and award the commission to GTZ for the next 3 years. The main basis of the Program Offer was the Strategic Planning Workshop held on March 1-2, 2006 at Tiara Oriental Hotel, Makati City, wherein general strategies were agreed with our public-private regional partners, although pre-discussions with key decision-makers from DTI (i.e. Office of the Undersecretary of the SME Group, Office of the Undersecretary of Regional Operations Group, Regional Directors, Small Business Corporation, Bureau of Small Medium Enterprise Development) were already held to facilitate the outcomes.

A participatory approach was taken with the stakeholders, spending time in small groups to discuss what the broad approach of the program would be. This very much linked to the previous strategic planning workshop with the DTI decision makers in early February. Whereas in February, plans were made only with DTI, in March, these were validated with a larger group of around forty people representing local government units, local chambers of commerce, financial institutions, and the academe. The main outcome of the March meeting is that objectives, components, indicators, and program structure were agreed upon by the large group in general, and signed for in a Memorandum of Understanding with the DTI in particular (i.e. with Undersecretaries Amelia Alonzo and Carissa Cruz). The next step is to wait for the BMZ to finalize and approve the Offer, after which SMEDSEP can plan for the next phase in the 3rd - 4th quarter of the year.

Enabling Environment

• DTI’s Bureau of Small and Medium Enterprise Development (BSMED) has taken the lead in producing a Handbook on Best Practices on Business Registration which they hope will benefit 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. Other Donors involved in similar business streamlining activities will also be involved in this endeavor (e.g. Asia Foundation, IFC, ILO). BSMED and GTZ will select a consultant to undertake this initiative in the next 2 weeks. In addition to the handbook, DTI BSMED c/o PTTC is also actively developing an audiovisual presentation to document the streamlining experiences in Bacolod and Ormoc.
• After the Asian Institute of Management’s successful launch of the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project (PCCRP) 2005 – which GTZ has been supporting through the SMEDSEP and Decentralization Programs – AIM and GTZ will had a special presentation of the survey at a forum for Visayan stakeholders in Cebu on March 24. The Visayan Roadshow raised awareness among Visayan decision-makers and help them take appropriate courses of action to improve their cities’ competitiveness potential.
• SMEDSEP is also very much involved in the upcoming high-level Philippine Development Forum (March 30-31, 2006), wherein the Cabinet members of the Government of the Philippines are expected to meet, exchange with and agree on common steps with donor agencies on important areas for development. GTZ and other committed SME Donors (IFC, Asia Foundation, ILO, ADB, JICA, ADB, CIDA) have been supporting DTI’s SME Group to position DTI’s implementation plans for the SME Development Plan at the Forum. Donors are committed to helping out the implementation of the SMED Plan, particularly, for this year, activities on Streamlining Business Registration, an essential aspect of improving the Local Investment Climate. More updates will be posted on this page after the Forum.
• Preparations are also underway to conduct the final debriefing / evaluation of business registration streamlining efforts in Ormoc and Bacolod Cities

Local and Regional Economic Development

• In its pilot year of implementation (2005), LRED Action Plans were developed and agreed upon by stakeholders in 4 pilot LGUs. Each of the LRED Action Plan has an implementation period of 1 year. As such, it’s high time for the planning of a second cycle of LRED Action Planning, to be conducted in April.
• Likewise, a Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop was held in October 2005. The training aimed to familiarize public and private representatives on the general concept of LRED and equip them with target oriented/participatory tools of planning LRED strategies. Results of the training demonstrated a successful step towards disseminating and replicating the approach within the province of Leyte. However, evaluation of the training further suggested that there is still a considerable scope of improving the economic know how of the participants and equip them with tools for analysing the prospects of an LRED-intervention from a business point of view. Thus, the program together with the partners identified the “Follow up TOT” as a critical intervention to be undertaken at the end of March.
• Preparations are also underway for documenting and evaluating the 9 Lighthouse Projects undertaken in the context of this program.

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

• The Negros Island Tourism Inc. (NITI) was successfully launched last March 6, boosting public awareness, membership campaign and a funding drive. To further assist NITI, a marketing plan for the organization was developed with tourism expert Godfried Hilz-ward, who then paid a courtesy call to Department of Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, together with NITI Head Ruth Cruz. Sec. Durano showed interest in the NITI concept and requested for updates on its progress.
• Since the concept of facilitating the creation of NITI has been promoted by GTZ to other GTZ projects in Asia, this has prompted GTZ-Indonesia to make a study visit to Negros Occidental in April, in the hope of learning from Negros’ experience.
• Still in Negros, SMEDSEP is currently developing another intervention for the tourism sector in a planned training course on International and Culinary Management.
• In Cebu, the CADD (Computer Aided Design Development) program of Interface Computer College, one of the products being developed as a selected training partner-providers of SMEDSEP, has been validated with IT sector, and will soon be offered by the college. Other products being developed with the other selected partner-providers shall also be launched by March-April (with La Consolacion College, Visayan Maritime Academy, YES Consulting).
• The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industries has accepted the Cebu business portal business plan, paving the way for developing and operating a virtual business development service market. Next steps on how to concretize the portal plan are expected to be finalized with CCCI shortly.
• SMEDSEP is also involved in the upcoming the 2nd IT Summit in Cebu, entitled Cebu Silion Island 2015. As the name suggests, the event envisions Cebu as a ‘ Silicon Valley’. Since IT is SMEDSEP’s pilot sector in Cebu, the Program will be involved by providing facilitation at the summit.
• Currently, baseline data from the 8 selected BDS/training providers are being gathered till the end of the quarter, for both Negros and Cebu. This will enable the Program to measure how its interventions have supported the growth and development of the partner-providers in IT and Tourism (e.g. whether the income it generates from SME clients has grown).

Financial Services

• On-the-job trainings for SME Loan Officers/Appraisers of Anchor Rural Banks in the Visayas were completed in February-March. As a follow-through activity of the class room type-seminars, OJTs were appreciated by banks since they give Loan Staff actual experience in going through the whole cycle of evaluating SME loan applications using the cash flow based-approach. Beneficiaries of the training included the Rural Bank of Marayo and Dungganon Thrift Bank (both in Negros Occidental), Rural Bank of Barili (Cebu).
• Meanwhile, due diligence for Dungganon Bank was completed, while Credit Risk Management Practices of the RB of Marayo and Bank Victories were reviewed.
• As a follow-up on the BDS-FS Study Tour to Indonesia, two main activities were carried out:
  • Delegates who took part in the mission held a roundtable meeting hosted by SBC to discuss lessons learned, possible recommendations, and how to move these ideas forward. On March 10, the Study Tour Participants, – comprised of national decision makers from the likes of DTI’s Small Business Corporation, Rural Bank Association of the Philippines, and the Chamber of Thrift banks, developed an action plan to further BDS-FS synergies in the market. This included the creation of selection criteria for BDS providers for financial services, as well as publishing a list of BDS providers currently providing services to financial institutions.
  • In an effort to further GTZ regional cooperation, SMEDSEP hosted a study tour for GTZ-Indonesia partners. Indonesia wanted to get input on designing a blueprint intended to outline the rural bank industry development in
    the country for the next ten years. As such, SMEDSEP organized meetings for GTZ-Indonesia focusing on policies and strategies in commercialized rural bank systems.
• Immediate future plans for FS include reviewing the existing practices on Credit Risk Management of Anchor Banks; a study, consultation and validation of the BDS Market for Financial Services; and a study on Regulations affecting enhanced SME Finance via Rural Banks in the Visayas. Training on SME Credit and Market Risk with partner banks is also set to be conducted

Trade Project

• Aquaculture Component: The Metrology, Standards, Testing and Quality (MSTQ) is holding a "Quality and Competitiveness Symposium and Workshop" on March 6 and 7 in Eduardo, Aboitiz, Cebu City.

 

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