DAVAO City has been identified as one of the eight pilot areas in the country for the initial implementation of the “Kapatid Angat Lahat” Program.
The program, which will be launched in the city on October 7 at the Marco Polo Hotel Davao, is seen to capacitate and develop further the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and become more competitive and sustainable in a bid to reduce unemployment, poverty and achieve inclusive growth.
The program, which is initiated by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez, is spearheaded by DTI in partnership with Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc. – Go Negosyo.
Rachel Remitio, Chief Trade and Industry Development Specialist of DTI-Davao, during Wednesday's Habi at Kape media forum at Abreeza Ayala Mall-Davao, said that the program will be composed of three components: Mentor Micro-Enterprises (Mentor ME), Adopt a Shared Service Facilities (SSF) and Inclusive Business (IB).
Other pilot areas/cities of the program are Baguio, Iloilo, Cebu, Tacloban, Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, and General Santos.
“This will be initially implemented in the pilot areas but by next year (2017) we target to roll it nationwide in all the areas where Negosyo Centers are established,” Remitio said.
A total of 308 Negosyo Centers are in the country, 14 of which are launched in Davao Region. For next year, DTI is also eyeing to establish a total of 21 centers and 49 centers by 2018.
Meanwhile, Mentor ME is a one-on-one weekly mentoring sessions by business owners and practitioners to micro entrepreneurs on different functional areas of entrepreneurship. Businesses with capitalization at P3 million and below belong to this segment.
A total of 20 micro entrepreneurs are eyed to be the recipients of this mentoring session per Negosyo Center. In Davao City, two centers were already launched at Magsaysay Park Complex and in Toril.
The Mentor ME component will be implemented for 11 weeks starting October 12 to December.
Topics to be tackled include setting the entrepreneurship mindset, marketing and market trends, operations management, human resource management, supply and value chain, and financial management, among others.
“We are confident that after the 11 sessions, the recipients will enable to upgrade themselves from micro to being small or even bigger,” Remitio said, citing small enterprises has capitalization of P3 million to P30 million while medium enterprises has P100 million and below capitalization.
She also said that after the mentoring sessions, the entrepreneurs will be tasked to come up with re-entry plan or feasibility study for their businesses.
Remitio said that as of Wednesday, DTI-Davao has screened a total of nine micro entrepreneurs, most are in the food processing and wearables and homestyles.
In order to qualify as beneficiary of the Mentor ME component, one must have a business name registration or a business permit, operating at least one year, resident of Davao City, at least 18 years old and must be committed to allocate time for the 11 weeks mentoring sessions period.
She added that they have also identified local business experts who will mentor the micro entrepreneurs. Most of the mentors are from the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc.
On October 7, Concepcion will bring in some 35 Go Negosyo entrepreneurs and angelpreneurs.
Adopt an SSF, for its part, will be a big Kapatid approach. Large enterprises adopt an SSF Project/Cooperator of DTI to strengthen the latter’s operation and improve its financial standing.
Two SSF projects were initially identified in Davao Region for inclusion in the program - Daveco in Davao City which is into pineapple food processing and Docshei in Davao Oriental which is into coco coir production.
“These two were identified because one of the criteria set is the SSF equipment should be P1 million and above in value and is at least 60 percent operational.
The IB component will identify different IB models in the region.
“IB models are those businesses involving a certain community thereby generating employment and income,” Remitio said, adding that IB models are those like Coffee for Peace.
After the inventory, DTI will facilitate the documentation and publication of the IB models to promote these and increasing the chances of the models to be adopted by other enterprises “to create an IB community that recognizes IB models designed to assist MSMEs.”
