What's New - As of August 5, 2005
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Enabling Environment
* SMEDSEP will continue to provide technical assistance to Ormoc
and Bacolod in improving their business registration and licensing
procedures. Consultants from the Ateneo School of Government, who did
the time and motion study earlier this year in the two cities, will
evaluate the systems and processes put in place by the LGUs as a result
of this study. Among the consultants' interventions is the monitoring
of the next cycle of business registration in January 2006.
* The seminar, Shaping an Enabling Business and Investment Climate
in Asia: Making Reforms Work, organized by GTZ-SMEDSEP in partnership
with the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the
Asian Institute of Management (AIM), was successfully held last July
25-28, 2005 at the Traders Hotel, Manila. The seminar, facilitated by
Mr. Simon White, an international business environment specialist, was
attended by delegates from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, India,
Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines. With inputs from a
diverse range of experts including the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), the seminar focused on how to make business and
investment climate reforms work. Watch this space in the coming weeks
to access the seminar outcomes and documentation.
Local and Regional Economic Development
* Criteria have been drafted for selecting viable projects that GTZ
will support in the pilot Local Government Units of Leyte. The projects
are currently undergoing initial assessment and will be presented to
regional partners for their final selection. Chief among these criteria
are that the projects can be implemented in a relatively short period
(around 8 months) and can achieve reasonable impact and have a
relatively large outreach. A minimum of two projects per LGU will be
selected and supported.
* Preparations for an LRED training scheduled in October are
underway. The goal of the training is to provide government national
agencies, business service organizations, and LGUs with an
understanding of the LRED concept and to equip them with LRED tools.
* SMEDSEP had the privilege of presenting the program, particularly
the LRED and Financial Services component to Governor Petilla and the
members of the Provincial Council in Tacloban in early July.
Business Development Services and Demand-Driven Technical Vocation and
Education Training
* As a follow-up to his mission in May, Mr. Gottfried Hilz-Ward,
Tourism expert, returned to the Philippines to assist the Negros
Tourism Core Group finalize its concept of a Tourism Marketing Agency
for Negros Occidental. The agency concept - the Negros Island
Tourism, Inc. - was presented to stakeholders, thereby turning it
into a reality. The agency hopes to be officially launched by November.
To meet this, GTZ will facilitate action planning for the agency as a
major next step.
* Mr. Hilz-Ward also conducted Marketing Training for Negros'
resort owners to create awareness and increase preparedness and demand
of resort owners for Marketing services. To see Mr. Hilz-Ward's
previous report, visit the www.smedsep.ph website and go to the
publications/reports section.
* In Cebu, potential IT training providers underwent a Business
Planning training seminar. Together with partners from DTI and TESDA,
SMEDSEP will evaluate the business plans, which will form the basis of
which to select the training providers that SMEDSEP will support. A
similar Business Planning seminar will take place in Negros Occidental
for Tourism training providers in mid-August.
* Also in Cebu, an IT Didactic Training Seminar will be conducted
by Mr. Kurt Uy in August to enhance the training competence of IT
Instructors.
* In Negros Occidental, a training course on writing commentaries
and scripts for destinations in standard tour packages was conducted by
Ms. Fran Ng. The results of this write-shop are intended to be used at
the ASEAN Games in November as a few sporting events will be hosted by
N.Occidental. The write-shop also resulted in the formation of a pool
of travel writers in the province that will continue to network and
share experiences. To monitor SMEDSEP's interventions in the
province, a baseline study for the tourism sector is currently being
conducted together with SDC Asia.
* In terms of Organizational Development interventions, the Cebu
Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCCI) as well as CEDFIT were
supported by GTZ through the consultancy efforts of Ms. Leah Zveglich
in developing a doable and feasible strategic plan. A "Training of
Trainers" on the Balanced Scorecard tool was also conducted for
selected providers in Cebu, who were required to design plans for
applying their newly-acquired skills and know-how.
Financial Services
* This month, SMEDSEP will be conducting a Study on the Regulations
Affecting Enhanced SME Finance via Rural and Thrift Banks in the
Philippines. This short-term assignment will examine, in coordination
with the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) and the
Chamber of Thrift Banks (CT), the current operating environment
affecting MSMEs finance in the Philippines, especially the hindering
(and facilitating) policies, regulations and industry practices.
* In Cebu, recent activities consisted of: on-the-job training of
credit staff facilitated by short-term expert Virginio Jamon; due
diligence and the implementation of MSE credit manual and procedures
for several banks including Rural Bank of Talisay and Philippine Postal
Savings Bank (PPSB). Note that in June, PPSB formally implemented and
approved the credit manual in headquarters and its Visayas offices.
* In Negros, negotiations are ongoing with potential second thrift
bank partner, while due diligence is being conducted with another rural
bank. Additionally, due diligence, (further) implementation of credit
procedures and manuals, and the introduction of a simple credit rating
system were completed with the New Rural Bank of Victoria and Nation
Bank.
* In Leyte, due diligence is being conducted with two potential
rural banks. In all three pilot areas, preparations are underway for
another round of SME Training for Executives and Loan Offices in
September.
Please visit our website at www.smedsep.ph for more information.
Thank you for your interest in SMEDSEP!