IN the hope of creating more jobs this year, the National Antipoverty Commission (NAPC) said the government is looking at extending around P29.8 billion worth of loans to small and medium enterprises.

NAPC Secretary Domingo Panganiban said the loans will be extended through the government’s Small and Medium Enterprises Unified Lending Opportunities for National Growth (Sulong) Program this year to also boost Filipino enterprise development.

Panganiban also said the government extended loans worth P126 billion to some 80,779 shopkeepers, grocers, food processors and other small- and medium-scale business owners between 2004 and March 2008 to help meet the target of creating 6 million new jobs by 2010.

He also said the government released an additional P6.2 billion in loans to some 22,085 Filipino entrepreneurs through the program during the first quarter of 2008, creating another 103,120 new jobs nationwide.

“The government had afforded loans amounting to nearly P120 billion to 58,694 small- and medium-scale Filipino entrepreneurs between 2004 and 2007 under the Sulong Program alone,” Panganiban said, adding that the loans had generated 1.8 million new jobs for poor and low-income workers during the same period.

This was based on a report issued by the state-run Small Business Corp. (SBC) chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Virgilio Angelo to the NAPC. The report indicated that the Sulong loans were granted to SMEs through the SBC, the Development Bank of the Philippines, the Land Bank of the Philippines, the Quedan Rural Credit and Finance Corp., the Philippine Export Import Credit Agency (PhilExim), the National Livelihood Support Fund and the Social Security System.

The NAPC head said the loans granted to SMEs under the Sulong Program over the past four years have allowed small- and medium-scale Filipino entrepreneurs to provide employment for nearly two million poor Filipinos nationwide.

Panganiban made the announcement during a briefing organized by the Committee on Oversight of the House of Representatives to assess the progress of the new jobs component of the Arroyo administration’s 10-point agenda.

More state interventions needed for the poor–Salceda

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Government to grant additional P29.8B in loans to SMEs in 2008

IN the hope of creating more jobs this year, the National Antipoverty Commission (NAPC) said the government is looking at extending around P29.8 billion worth of loans to small and medium enterprises.

IRRI official urges government to hike rice production

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