PHL champions MSMEs, youth, women entrepreneurs for Asean 2017 Business and Investment Program
Business Mirror
January 24, 2017
THE Philippines, through the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), on Tuesday unveiled business prong the priority areas in terms of Asean’s policy focus and resources. Asean Economic Community (AEC) 2025 Pillar 4 (“Resilient, Inclusive, People-Oriented and People-Centered Asean”) reinforces the MSME-oriented mandate and supports the significant work of Asean in providing an enabling environment for MSME development and internationalization.
“The Philippines, through the DTI, wants to highlight business programs and events that will complement the Asean efforts to champion the inclusion of micro, small and medium enterprises in the international trade, and the strengthened promotion of youth and women entrepreneurship,” Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said.
During the Asean Business and Investment Program launch, Lopez shared programs developed that provide the business component of the priority themes and policies the Philippines is advocating under the AEC pillar with an Asean perspective.
The following programs were developed by the DTI as chairman of the Asean 2017 Committee on Business and Investment Promotion: Asean MSMEs-Mentors Conference 2017; Asean Creative Cities Forum and Exhibit; Asean at International Food Exposition Philippines 2017; Asean Women’s Business Conference; Inclusive Business Summit; Second Asean Young Entrepreneurs Carnival; Creative Marketplace; Slingshot Asean; and Asean MSME Summit.
Through the priority agenda of “inclusive, innovation-led growth”, the Philippines is poised to champion the MSME mandate in the Asean through the following strategic measures: increasing trade and investment; integrating MSMEs in the digital economy; and developing an innovation-driven economy.
High on the Philippines’s hosting agenda for the economic pillar are deliverables geared toward instituting an enabling environment that allows MSMEs to develop and internationalize through policies that ease the cost of doing business and through support activities that nurture their continuous growth.
“As Asean, we are highly aware of the need to increase participation from all sectors to ensure the benefits of integration are fully realized and shared by everyone in the region,” Lopez said.
As chair for Asean 2017 Committee on Business and Investment Promotion (CBIP), the DTI formed an interagency committee established by the Philippines’ 2017 Asean National Organizing Committee. The CBIP is responsible in engaging the international business community, government, and other parties; and as well as in organizing business and investment-related activities.
The Philippine chairmanship of Asean 2017 was formally launched last January 15 at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City with the theme “Partnering for Change, Engaging the World.”