Business name registrations in the first quarter this year already reached 432,962  almost half of the entire 2020 that registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as economic challenges forced Filipinos to find innovative ways to earn a living during the pandemic.

DTI Secretary Ramon M. Lopez reported this as he encouraged the youth at the virtual launch of the Youth Entrepreneurship Program (YEP) rolled out by the DTI Regional 1 Office. Lopez said that Region 1 alone has already 23,465 business name registrations in the first quarter this year.

In 2020, the DTI registered a total of 916,163 business names from 637,580 in 2019. Region has total business name registration of 48,787 from 31,749 in 2019.

Lopez attributed the huge number of Filipinos going into business to the economic challenges wrought by the present pandemic. “We’ve seen that there is a need to be more innovative in the way we do things. Many of our countrymen have adapted to the challenging times through entrepreneurship,” he said.

Also complementing the increase in businesses is the boom in e-commerce adoption.

Since the start of this year, business registration of online businesses nationwide has grown to more than 9,000. Last year also saw a significant increase in the number of online sellers that registered their business names, climbing to more than 80,000 as compared to around 6,000 from 2018 to 2019. 

“This is where your young age has an advantage over us, as you are more tech-savvy and tech-oriented, and creative. Thus, as young entrepreneurs, we encourage you to use technology to think and come up with new and relevant business models to address the needs of our people. Use technology, use your creativity, the way you know it, apply it to entrepreneurship, and you can build back a better world,” he said.

Many of the DTI programs have also been adjusted to help micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) during the pandemic. These include providing them access to microfinance and helping them transition digitally so that they can benefit from the growing e-commerce market. 

In addition, under Republic Act (RA) No. 10679, or the Youth Entrepreneurship Act, DTI is particularly committed to helping young people take up entrepreneurship. 

“That’s why we created YEP, a focused program to support young Filipinos in becoming entrepreneurs. And with today’s launch of YEP in Region 1, we hope to ignite this entrepreneurial spirit in you all through the sharing of invited resource speakers noted for their business knowledge and experience in today’s seminars,” he said.