Small, big business matching pushed

ILOILO CITY—The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) plans to set up a platform that will enable large and multinational firms to forge partnerships with micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the 21 Apec member economies.

This platform is expected to serve as a “bulletin board” wherein a large company can post its requirements for raw materials, intermediate and finished products, and even services, which the MSMEs can then bid for, said Ramon Clarete, former dean and current professor at the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Economics.

Business matching programs such as this proposal was among the initiatives being eyed by Apec economies to help improve market access for the MSMEs and provide them with an avenue to participate more widely in international trade and the global value chains of the multinational companies.

“The partnership between large enterprises and MSMEs is the future. They will not be competing but rather, they will be cooperating with one another to develop new products and develop more values through existing products. MSMEs are mostly engaged in agriculture, food products, processed food products, handicrafts. These are some of the industries we need to promote and grow in our country,” Clarete explained.

“These (products) are exportable and that’s where we need this partnership with the large enterprises who are able to break through in export markets. Our SMEs need to understand there are a lot of disciplines they have to absorb, and innovations in the particular way they manage their business in order to create products that the international markets could appreciate and therefore buy. But for me, I think the future is there—the future for the Philippine economy. Because the way to develop the economy is to really involve and include as many MSMEs as possible,” Clarete said.