Ladies and Gentlemen, magandang umaga sa inyong lahat!
First of all, allow me to congratulate all of you as you mark the Second Year of the Cordillera Youth Entrepreneurship Program (YEP!). We at DTI have been tasked through the Youth Entrepreneurship Act of 2015 to integrate youth entrepreneurship in our policies and programs for MSME development. Young people like you comprise a large portion of our country’s population and you are the driving force behind our country’s thriving digital economy.
Your love of social media has made the Philippines the social media capital of the world and an ideal hub for e-commerce. The growth of digital commerce during the pandemic has saved the day for many businesses during the lockdowns. E-commerce adoption in fact grew from 70% in 2019 to 76% in 2020 and 80.2% in 2021.
This is why the role of the Youth Entrepreneurship Program (YEP!) is crucial to strengthening economic independence among young individuals and communities. This is one of DTI’s strategies to ensure a whole-of-government approach in addressing the major challenges affecting the youth. Our strategy involves our 7Ms Framework for Successful Entrepreneurship, consisting of programs that focus on Mindset, Mastery, Mentoring, Money, Machine, Market Access, and Models of Negosyo.
You also have the full support of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who has MSMEs in his heart and always wants to help them—from the seller at the palengke or on the sidewalk, to the karinderya stall owner. The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) has been an outstanding partner in this effort, and we appreciate your support in promoting DTI’s socio-economic development agenda for the MSMEs through our Negosyo Centers.
DTI has provided assistance to 18,160 MSMEs in the Cordilleras, contributing 38,847 jobs and more than P1-M in MSME investments in the region in 2021. There are now 47 Negosyo Centers and 163 Shared Services Facilities (SSFs) established in CAR, making our services closer to the youth especially those in the far-flung areas of the region. We have also received 2,422 loan applications from CAR of which 1,664 were approved amounting to P209 million.
We believe in the youth’s potential for creative entrepreneurship, and we share in the pride of Baguio City as the first-ever Philippine city to be designated a UNESCO Creative City for crafts and folk art. Indeed, the youth across the different provinces in CAR have a vital role as part of the city’s creative ecosystem, and their talents and skills in the creative field must continuously be enhanced.
Your region is also home to technology and knowledge-based industries, in which most of the youth excel. It isn’t surprising therefore that Baguio City ranks among 100 global outsourcing destinations. We look forward to further development of the region’s electronics, machinery, and metals industries, including aerospace and agri-industrial manufacturing technology. As an initial step, we encourage the youth to take advantage of the fabrication laboratories at Saint Louis University for ideation, innovation, and product development initiatives.
We believe the next generation of Filipinos are the hope of our nation, especially as we build back better in the post-pandemic future. That’s why we urge today’s “youthpreneurs” to take advantage of DTI’s MSME development programs so that you can become the smart and successful entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
Once again, I congratulate the graduates of the Cordillera Youth Entrepreneurship, and we are happy that most of you have continued your entrepreneurship education through our Kapatid Mentor ME (KMME) Program.
I salute the 300 participants from the Youth MSMEs and would-be MSMEs, and the youth organizations represented here this morning.
Recognizing the energy, capabilities, and creativity of our young people, I —together with our development partners, challenge you to bring your innovative creative ideas to work towards greater competitiveness and productivity, as you look into the enormous potentials of your region. Maraming salamat, and more power to our Cordillera Youth Entrepreneurs! ♦
Date of Release: 15 September 2021