MANILA — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is intensifying its efforts to attract micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the countryside to take part and benefit from its business mentorship program dubbed, Kapatid Mentor ME.
In a statement Tuesday, Trade and industry Secretary Ramon Lopez noted that numerous MSMEs based in the provinces have grown as a result of Kapatid Mentor ME and have since expanded employment opportunities in their respective communities. “The Kapatid Mentor ME Program is driving the entrepreneurial revolution in the Philippines. More importantly, this revolution is happening in the countryside,” said Lopez.
“With the goal of helping entrepreneurs attain the mindset and business know-how, they need to sustain and scale-up their businesses. This program empowers MSME business owners — particularly in the provinces — and helps them create jobs that benefit the whole community,” he added.
In 2016, the DTI, in partnership with the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE), launched the Kapatid Mentor ME program.
The Kapatid Mentor ME Program pools together a network of mentors, mostly from large companies, and makes their wealth of knowledge available to MSME proprietors, so they might scale up their businesses.
The 11-week mentoring program coaches MSMEs on product development, marketing, operations management, accounting, taxation, finance, obligations and contracts, human resource management, supply and value chain, succession planning, and business plan development.
As of 2017, the Kapatid Mentor ME Program had 426 certified mentors who trained thousands of micro and small entrepreneurs.
This year’s Kapatid Mentor ME Program began in February in Ifugao and will roll out in 16 regions nationwide until September.
For this month alone, DTI has started to run Kapatid Mentor ME in 14 provinces — Pampanga, Aklan, Albay, Tarlac, Sorsogon, Pangasinan, Romblon, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Bataan, Quezon, Capiz, Agusan del Sur, and Iloilo.
“To sustain this growth, continued collaboration between DTI, PCE, and local government units is essential. Our goal now is to develop competitive MSMEs and create a culture that recognizes their contribution to the economic growth of the country,” the trade chief said. (Kris Crismundo/PNA)
