DIGITAL advocates have called out the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on its planned e-commerce platform, saying that it is unnecessary and not responsive to the actual needs of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
During the recent MSME Summit 2022, DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual bared that they are working on an e-commerce portal that will give MSMEs access to a wider market.
Set to be launched before the end of the year, the proposed marketplace will also be the basis for financing or meeting their funding requirements.
Finding it not meeting the real requirements of small businesses, Digital Pinoys National Campaigner Ronald Gustilo said the program should be scrapped.
“The private sector is already doing well in providing e-commerce platforms for MSMEs,” he pointed out. “Adding another platform will only be redundant and will be a waste of government resources.”
Pushing through with this project, he said, the trade department would still have to market this online store not just with MSMEs but also with prospective customers.
DTI data show that 99.51 percent of business enterprises in the Philippines are MSMEs, accounting for 62.66 percent of jobs generated for Filipinos.
Despite this, however, only 6 percent of them are using digital technology for their businesses, while 23 percent are not utilizing any kind of such, revealed the agency’s baseline study.
“What the DTI should consider doing is providing support for MSMEs so that they can digitalize their establishments so that they can unlock broader, wider markets for their products,” Gustilo suggested.
He added DTI should focus on how to make them become more competitive so that the market will patronize their businesses.
“DTI should look into ways to help the growth of MSMEs by facilitating partnerships with digital banks to expand opportunities for credit and loans for additional capital and expansion,” said the national campaigner of Digital Pinoys.
The trade department, for him, must be “more grounded” on initiatives it enforces to enterprises.
“DTI should have regular consultations with enterprises so that the programs that the agency would like to implement will be more grounded and meet the actual needs of their clientele. Otherwise, the efforts and resources poured into the programs will be wasted, or worse, it might affect beneficiaries negatively,” Gustilo stressed.
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