MSME urged to best consider franchising
We fully support and give our time to this kind of endeavors to offer hope
Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) should affiliate with the Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. (AFFI) to be sure that their businesses will be supported by the right people, Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez said yesterday.
During AFFI’s Virtual Franchise Sales Pitch, Lopez said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) fully supports programs that give hope to MSME especially during the ongoing health crisis.
“We fully support and give our time to this kind of endeavors to offer hope. DTI is one institution that develops MSME and we have a program dubbed as 7 Ms: mindset, mentoring, money, machine, market, and models, which include franchising but some are scams,” Lopez said.
He expressed his support to the AFFI due to the fact they have self-policing function, its members to avoid franchising issues, and to be sure that they can provide good service to future franchisers.
“Perfect example of scammers are those who leave their franchisers when they already invested time and resources. Those groups do not provide training, they don’t develop the brand and leave you in the cold, that’s what we call scam. But with AFFI, you can be sure that you will not be left out,” according to Lopez.
AFFI is the prime trade organization committed to promoting responsible MSME businesses through franchising.
AFFI is made up of Filipino executives and prominent businessmen who recognize the competitive potential of the local franchising industry in the global market.
Push continues
Duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the association serves as a governing body that safeguards the interest of its members and innovates ways to further its advocacies.
He cited that the DTI continuously pushes to reopen the economy and different sectors, even at the height of the pandemic last July.
“The pandemic has caused so many losses in the segment of MSME. We have to do it gradually and in a calibrated manner since health experts feared the surge of Covid cases. But we have proven already since last year that there were no surge while we continue to open the economy,” Lopez stressed.
He said health experts should be assured that the government is doing its best to reopen the economy gradually and safely, which have proven good results since the Covid cases, from 4,000 cases has gone down to less than 2,000 cases per day currently.
Hopefully by March
“As we continue to push MGCQ, hopefully we can do it by March, we just need the approval of the President in our cabinet meeting on Monday, 22 February, and we will present this to the president so that the country can move on with the further slumping of the economy,” Lopez noted.
We hope that the our economy will improve if quarantine classification will be eased to a more relaxed MGCQ, to catch up with other countries in Southeast Asia.
He expressed his support to the AFFI due to the fact they have self-policing function, its members to avoid franchising issues, and to be sure that they can provide good service to future franchisers.
“We are recovering in a gradual manner. Our GDP from minus 16.5, it has gone back to negative 8.3 in the last quarter of 2020. The unemployment rate, which are usually from 4 to 5 percent, it deteriorated at 17.7 percent, then it went down to 10 percent and now at 8.7. But still we are reiterating that we are still far from 5 percent preCovid status, that’s why continue to push the reopening of the economy and sectors, because we need the market,” Lopez expressed, noting the members of the Inter-Agency Task Force are already convinced that they must help the economy, but still with the strict implementation of the minimum health protocols.