President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has called on entrepreneurs and industry players to keep reaching out to each other to improve the condition of  Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) in the country. Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin (Ali Vicoy)
In a message delivered by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin during the MSME Summit 2023 held at the Manila Hotel, Marcos encouraged businesses to leverage their respective strengths and resources to "unleash the full potential of MSMEs." "I call on all our industry players, experts, and all government agencies to pursue a whole of society and whole of government approach to developing our MSMEs," Marcos said in his message on Tuesday, July 18. The President stressed that it only through forging lasting partnerships with different sectors of society that the country can transform to effective and efficient solutions to the various issues encountered by MSMEs such as financial and market access, skills development, and technology adoption, among others "I encourage everyone to keep reaching out and coming together so that we can leverage our respective strengths, expertise, and resources to even greater heights," Marcos said. "Let us take advantage on the inputs gathered here from the prime movers of the industry and our MSMEs themselves and further unleash the full potential of our MSMEs," he added. The Chief Executive stressed that it is important to ensure that MSMEs are able to grow, flourish, and compete globally "if we want to truly transform the Philippine economy." He noted that MSME's are one of the steady pillars of the Philippine economy as they comprise more than  99 percent of all registered businesses and employ more than 5.4-million Filipinos. Marcos also assured the industry that the government remains committed to providing MSMEs with digital literacy training and support for diverse e-commerce platforms aimed at boosting their efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness. "We will sustain our support for enterprises engaged in agri-business and provide financial aid for further research and development," he said. "We will help in expanding access to financing MSMEs, including the expansion of loan programs, credit guarantee schemes, and the establishment of a credit scoring system to facilitate lending decisions," he added. The National MSME Summit 2023 is spearheaded by the MSME Development Council in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Go Negosyo. Some 800 participants from the ranks of entrepreneurs, tech startups, academe, business experts, mentors and enablers are in attendance to share their knowledge and insights on the immense opportunities and challenges in today’s globally competitive business environment.