MSMEs key to creating jobs in the Philippines
- Charles Chau
MSMEs, industry and labour working together will create a virtuous cycle that in the end will generate more jobs for everyone, said Joey Concepcion, Founder of Go Negosyo, the advocacy of the Philippines Centre for Entrepreneurship (PCE).
“Growing MSMEs will help them hire more people which will, in the end, improve consumer spending and increase our country’s GDP. This is the circle of success that is achieved when everyone in the ecosystem grows. No one gets left behind,” said Concepcion, who also leads the jobs group of the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC).
The PSAC is a group of business leaders that the government has asked to advise it on achieving its economic goals.
Concepcion said MSMEs figured prominently in discussions with Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Benny Laguesma when they met to align efforts to increase employment for millions of Filipinos.
MSMEs were also on the agenda of PSAC’s five proposals to create more jobs in their presentation to President Marcos on August 17. The President previously emphasised that there should be a collaboration between the labour department and MSMEs.
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“We are trying to find ways on how the government and the private sector can collaborate and make the most of the country’s valuable human resource,” said Concepcion.
“We are pretty much aligned as far as our recommendations on jobs, skills development, the review of labour laws to create more harmony between labour and industry and not ‘too much government in this sector,” Concepcion said, according to Philstar Global.
