SPEECH OF SECRETARY RAMON LOPEZ
OKB @ Shangri-La
May 22, 2019, EDSA Shangri-La Plaza

Babanggitin ko po ulit ang aming mga ka-partner. Nangunguna po ang ating venue partner, Ms. Danila Fojas of the Shangri-La Plaza Group. Madam Med Villanueva, very inspiring talk. Kayo po dapat ang keynote speaker. I can feel the passion in your talk. But I didn’t realize that you started one year old, when you said na 43 years na kayo sa PHILEXPORT. Maaga po pala kayong nag-umpisa sa PHILEXPORT.

Of course to the OIC RD Leah, Mayor Patricia Gonzalez-Alsua of Ligao City, Mayor Amy Villanueva of Tiwi, Albay and Mayor Luistro, and the representatives of the local government units. To our partners, sa mga exhibitors po, mga mahal naming mga micro SMEs. Ang partner po natin sa Department of Tourism, representing, kanina nabanggit po si Ma’am na representing Sec. Berna Puyat na aking seatmate kapag meron po kaming meeting.

Magandang hapon po sa lahat. It’s always great to be here sa Shangri-La. At congratulations sa OKB. Salamat sa Shangri-La, for the first time, nag-partner po ang Shangri-La sa trade fair ng Department of Trade and Industry.
Appropriately, dito po sa OKB because of, I would suspect, the affiliation of Ms. Fojas being a Bicolana as well. Sana ito po ay simula lang ng ating pagsasama at partnership sa mga trade fairs at mga aktibidades ng Department of Trade and Industry.

Allow me also to mention that one of our projects in the Department of Trade and Industry is Go Lokal!, it’s similar to a trade fair. It’s what we call a trade fair every day. That is with the help of private sector partners. Shangri-La, hopefully, will partner with us. That will showcase every day in the mall, the products of micro SMEs. We make them as a partner, and the mall will run the Go Lokal! store by themselves, but we will tie them up with the micro SMEs.

In that way, we push for the promotion of the micro SME products for free. In other words, they get to be exposed in mainstream, high foot traffic venues like malls, especially in Shangri-La. When you go to this area, napakaraming tao parati kapag weekend. Dahil malapit din po tayo rito, nagpa¬-patronize din po tayo ng Shangri-La, many times.

Masasabi ko ho na that particular project, that we hoped Shangri-La will partner with us, like other malls have partnered with us. It allows the malls to empower micro SMEs by having a venue to showcase their products.
Plus the normal challenge is that after we support the micro SMEs in terms of seminars, nabanggit ko po na yung Mentor ME kanina, that’s a free seminar given nationwide, after we’ve given financing, after we’ve given product development support, may produkto na, walang mapagbentahan.

I mean, they would participate in trade fairs, but these would only be for three to five days. Then it’s gone. So what we’ve done is an everyday trade fair. It’s a win-win partnership because the malls get to run it themselves, ang benta po sa kanila, ang tubo po sa kanila. But the magic there is they help micro SMEs get the necessary exposure. So yun, maganda po yung business model, hence we encourage Shangri-La to be a partner. We understand that you don’t operate stores yourselves, but let’s make arrangements na may operator that can help you manage that.

We give high priority sa mga activities like trade fairs and Go Lokal! stores because they bring good business to the micro SMEs. These are tools that help them elevate their status. Kapag na-discover na sila ng malaking buyer at umorder na ng malaki, ‘yan na. Umpisa na ng paglaki ng negosyo nila.

‘Yan din po ang sikreto na nangyayari every time we have a trade fair. The buyers like the product, o-order ng marami, ang next na: “Paano ako mag-eexpand?” sabi ng SME “O-order na agad ng ilang libong piraso. Naku, hindi ko kaya ‘yan.” But with the assistance of the Department of Trade and Industry, matutulungan natin sila to expand.
Of course there would be financing programs like P3, yung programa ni Presidente Duterte na Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso, para mabura na talaga ang mga 5-6 and to give microfinancing options sa ating mga micro SMEs. Doon po, tinulungan tayo ni now Senator Bong Go.

And our President really wants to help the micro SMEs sa ilalim po ng ladder of entrepreneurship, ‘yung mga nagsisimula pa lang po ng kanilang business.

Example po, there’s a nice Bicol micro SME story. Na-meet ko po kanina si Ms. Emilyn Labor, siya po yung may-ari ng Jireh Food Products. Sila po ay OFW couple, kasama po ang asawa na si Mr. Roy na nagta-trabaho sa kanilang factory dahil nandito si Mrs. Emilyn.

Humingi po sila ng tulong sa Negosyo Center sa DTI-Camarines Norte Provincial Office. Nag-umpisa sila, kalian lang, November 2017. Nag-venture po sila sa vegetable chips, mga malunggay, tomato, carrot chips.

Iba pang mga Negosyo Center assistance, tinulungan sila sa product development, sa packaging, labelling, nakakuha po ng PHP30,000-worth of loans sa MicroVentures Philippines Financing  Company, or ‘yung programa po nilang OnePuhunan. PHP100,000-worth of loans from BPI-Bangko. Nag-participate na sila sa maraming DTI-initiated trade fairs mula noong 2017 pa lang. In a short period of time, marami na silang napuntahang trade fair.

Naging participant na sila ng mga free seminars na Kapatid Mentor ME with the Go Negosyo Group, kung saan din po ako nanggaling bago ako sumali sa Duterte administration noong nagsimula ang termino ni President Duterte.

Ngayon tinutulungan po sila sa webpage development through a DTI-DICT partnership. Para kapag nasa website po siya, mas lalawak po ang kanyang merkado at mas madidiscover po siya. Any time, 24-7. Ang lahat po na yun ay binibigay na tulong, kaya ngayon ay nandito na siya sa OKB.

Siya po ay isa lamang sa maraming storya ng natulungan ng DTI at ng mga partners kagaya ng PhilExport. Sabi nga ni Ma’am, 43 years na sila. Is it your parents pa ho? Kayo talaga ng sumali. Usually ang anak ang nagmo-modernize at sumasali sa association.

We also have a partnership with the Department of Tourism to promote the places. Every time we have a common program with DOT, when they promote the places, we can also promote the products. Even abroad, sa mga commercial posts natin, we always partner with DOT. Even in our Pasalubong Centers, OTOP Philippines Hubs, we always partner with the DOT.

We’re very happy that we’re doing this OKB. Bicol is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. Among 17 regions, it grew at 8.9% in 2018. Ang kanya pong per capita income, sharpest growth at 6.8%. Lumaki ko ang average income ng mga taga Bicol. ‘Yan ho ang mga economic numbers on Bicol.

And the DTI helped contribute to the Bicol region’s economic growth dahil po sa pagtulong sa micro SMEs. Micro SMEs are really the backbone of the economy. Practically all companies, or 99.6%, are micro SMEs. Only 0.4%, napakaliit, ang large enterprises. And they account for 70% of employment. They are a big help to the economy.

The challenge to us really is their contribution to the economy is not as high as 99.6%. The challenge is how to make micro SMEs high value-adding. The challenge is maximize the profit potential. Kapag mas ang value niyan, mas mataas ang mape-presyo niya, mas mataas ang kita ng ating mga micro SMEs. And that’s the type of operations ng micro SMEs na gusto nating maikalat. It’s really the value adding aspect.

Aside from sipag at tiyaga, for the same effort, mas malakit ang kita if you have better design, better packaging, it’s market-driven, it’s unique, it’s differentiated. Maraming tinitignan para maging value-added yun. Doon po sila mas nakaka-experience ng kaginhawahan.

I have also seen some products, I have tested it.  There’s the pili products. I know the Vicky’s Pili is in our Go Lokal! stores. Nafe-feature na po sila. I hope lumaki ang negosyo niyo mula noong sumali kayo sa Go Lokal!

Raising smart entrepreneurs is really the passion of DTI. Marami pong activities natin, doon naka-sentro. How do we really empower micro SMEs? We always say, it’s so easy to start a business. But how to hold on to it, to grow it, is really the difficult part. At maraming hindi nagiging successful dyan. But with assistance from all partners, sigurado the probability to succeed will be much higher. That’s what we’re working for.

That’s why nationwide, we’d like to announce that there are about 1,070 Negosyo Centers. These are the centers that can help micro SMEs to empower, level up their business models. Help them in terms of registration, product design, seminars, mentoring, coaching tables. Yung maliliit nan a negosyo pumunta kayo sa Negosyo Center, may magco-coach sa inyo diyan on financing, legal papers, product dev, design, whatever you need in business.
Just in Bicol alone, we have 70 Negosyo Centers. Almost 10,000 MSMEs assisted just this year, January to May. Every day ho talaga may pumupunta sa mga Negosyo Centers.

We’d like to mention that the OKB goes beyond the annual marketing event for Bicol’s fine products and tourism potentials. Na-emphasize po ni Ms. Villanueva, the heritage and moving forward, modernizing the products needed in the market. Ma’am, I was listening intently to your speech. To demonstrate the Bicolano resilience and to demonstrate Bicol’s socio economic potentials in trade, industry, and tourism.

We’re happy that in this event, we’re just limited by the boundaries, so we were only able to accommodate 54 exhibitors. Kung na-expand pa, we could’ve brought in more than 100. But that’s fine. This is our beginning with the Shangri-La group. Maybe we have a Go Lokal!, we’ll help you find an operator.

With this, I’d just like to congratulate again yung grupo ng mga partners tumutulong sa DOT. Babanggitin ko na rin po ang DOST, ang DA, at syempre ho ang Office of the President na kasama ho natin sa pagpapalago ng mga micro SMEs. Ang gusto ng President, walang maiiwan. If we empower the bottom of the pyramid, we empower the nation.

Magandang hapon po sa inyong lahat.