UNION Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) aims to bring more micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the digital highway through its “Ureka Forum”, according to its executive.
In a recent e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror, UnionBank Executive Vice President Genaro Lopez said the company will promote the benefits to entrepreneurs of going digital to grow their businesses.
He cited the experience of Baguio-based teacher-turned-entrepreneur Mau Fernando, who was able to expand his art business when enrolled in the Ureka program.
“With the forum, I was given a platform—my own online shop—and I all had to was to showcase the artist and creativity of every Baguio artist,” Lopez quoted Fernando as saying.
Now that he has presence online, Fernando is helping young artists from Baguio to enhance their craft while earning through his two shops. Paintings of Baguio artists were purchased by hotels and art collectors.
“We are very excited to see their businesses up and running at our Ureka shop site. With this, we hope to see more people like Maui,” Lopez said. The “majority of our customers can be found online, and the percentage of the MSMEs having a web site clearly shows the disconnect with the current market.”
Meanwhile, an official of the Asean Secretariat said developing the competitiveness of MSMEs is no longer an option but a necessity.
“In fact, the financial and economic crisis of 1997-1998 has induced a return to ‘the fundamentals’ among the ‘miracle economies’ in East and Southeast Asia, including a renewed focus on SMEs,” Asean Secretariat Senior Officer Thitapha Wattanapruttipaisan said in a report. “This policy shift has been complemented by higher budget allocations and external aid for the SME sector, including sizable resources made available by Japan.”
Wattanapruttipaisan wrote in her paper “Promoting SME Development: Some Issues and Suggestions for Policy Consideration,” the resources are under the so-called New Mizayawa Initiative.
“SMEs and, by extension, all business firms, have to manage growth and change in an environment where the pace, patterns and organization of production have evolved fundamentally since the late 1980s,” Wattanapruttipaisan added. She pointed out that the advent of trade liberalization at the global and regional levels and the information and communications technologies (ICT) have interlinked to develop huge opportunities, as well as formidable challenges to all interdependent countries and enterprises.
With technological and innovation capabilities onboard, plus the mushrooming of sophisticated networks of international production and cross-border supply chains, the role of MSMEs had become deeper and bigger in the global chain.
Image credits: Alysa Salen