www.smedsep.ph What's New as of September 5, 2005

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What's New As of 5 September 2005

Enabling Environment

• SMEDSEP will continue to provide technical assistance to Ormoc and Bacolod in improving their business registration and licensing procedures. Preparations are on-going with Consultants from the Ateneo School of Government to evaluate the systems and processes put in place by the LGUs as a result of the Time and Motion study that they conducted earlier this year.
• 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. Watch this space in the coming weeks to access the seminar outcomes and documentation.

Local and Regional Economic Development

• Ten potential lighthouse projects have been identified in Leyte. A local consultant will be hired to prepare and co-develop the project proposals of the projects. Projects with good proposals will be supported by GTZ in the pilot Local Government Units. A minimum of two projects per LGU will soon be selected and supported.
• LRED Expert Rolf Speit will return to Leyte for a month-long mission in October-November 2005 for two purposes:
  • To conduct an LRED Training of Trainers that aims to demonstrate concepts of LRED, provide necessary skills to conduct a rapid economic appraisal, and equip participants from the government with LRED facilitation techniques and tools
  • To undertake an LRED Internal Assessment with pilot LGUs, stakeholders and partners to evaluate the LRED approach of the program, as well as to come up with recommendations for the future phases of project implementation.
• GTZ-SMEDSEP has also been having collaboration meetings with another GTZ program, the Environment Natural Resources and Rural Development Program, to explore synergies on Virgin Coconut Oil (which has big potential in Leyte) and share the LRED approach and value chain tool.

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

• Plans to register the Tourism Marketing Agency for Negros Occidental (Negros Island Tourism, Inc.) are underway and should be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) soon. A local consultant will then be hired to develop the marketing strategy of the agency.
• In Negros Occidental, potential Tourism training providers underwent a Business Planning training seminar. Out of this seminar, a total of five business plans were generated (2 for BDS providers, 3 for training providers). In Cebu, seven business plans were generated for IT (4 for BDS providers, 3 from training providers). The next step is to select the BDS and training providers that SMEDSEP will support. The selection will be done by a Selection Committee comprised of DTI, TESDA and SMEDSEP.
• Baseline data collection has been finalized by SDC Asia for Negros Occidental, and report-writing has begun. The data gathered is aimed to help SMEDSEP monitor the effects of its BDS interventions in the province.
• An IT Didactic Training Seminar was conducted in Cebu last month to enhance the training competence of IT Instructors. A positive outcome is that the trainer participants have committed to doing an Echo Training in order to pass on the new knowledge they have learned to their peers/institutions.

Financial Services

• The Philippine Postal Savings Bank Board of Directors and President formally approved the SME Finance Credit Manual developed with SMEDSEP.
• The Partners and Stakeholders of the Financial Services component underwent evaluation interviews using GTZ’s electronic evaluation tool called e-VAL. This is a tool designed to enable GTZ to reach people involved in a project and collect and collate their views on the project, its impact and the achievement of objectives.
• In Negros Occidental, SMEDSEP signed its secondservice agreement with a financial institution from the thrift bank sector, the Dungganon Bank.
• Due diligence of Rural Banks of Marayo and Bangko Buena have been initiated. SMEDSEP also finalized strategic planning with the Small Business Corporation Visayas area for the further accreditation of partner banks.
• In all three pilot provinces, preparations are underway for the upcoming SME Finance Strategy and Marketing Training for bank executives and loan officers for rural banks, thrift banks and Business Development Service Providers. The trainings will take place in September-October 2005.
• On the job training for Loan Officers/Appraisers are also scheduled to take place with Nation Bank, RB of Talisay, RB of Hilongos, RB of Hindang.
• The search is still on for an expert to conduct a Study on the Regulations Affecting Enhanced SME Finance via Rural and Thrift Banks in the Philippines continues, to examine the current operating environment affecting MSMEs finance in the Philippines, especially the hindering (and facilitating) policies, regulations and industry practices.

Again, thanks for your interest in SMEDSEP.
Please do visit our website at www.smedsep.ph for more information about the Program.

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