Support the ‘Buy Local, Go Lokal’ campaign

AS part of its contribution to the national effort against the coronavirus disease 2019 ( Covid- 19), the Department of Trade and Industry ( DTI) has launched a countrywide campaign called “Buy Local, Go Lokal,” aimed at helping the hundreds of thousands of micro, small and medium enterprises ( MSMEs) that make up the biggest part of the Philippine economy.

The principle of the campaign is to help stimulate the economy from the bottom up by keeping money circulating in local communities. The DTI explained: “The applications of this principle are multiple. Generate revenue for local government efforts by buying domestically manufactured goods. Prevent village squares from being shuttered by supporting neighborhood stores and farmer’s markets. Or reduce consumer costs and carbon emissions by purchasing from established shops and pop- up outlets within walking or biking distance from residential areas.”

The program is an answer to the difficult problem of boosting economic activity while still encouraging — or when necessary, mandating through the implementation of community quarantines — people to limit activities outside their homes to buy important necessities. By following “Buy Local, Go Lokal,” consumers can meet their needs and support their own friends and neighbors.

Many local government units (LGUs) have already organized programs in line with the “Buy Local, Go Lokal” campaign. In Quezon City, for instance, a barangay or a village, or clusters of villages have developed mobile palengke, bringing the market of fresh goods to the consumers’ own neighborhoods. Preference is given to vendors from the local area, who benefit from having an easily accessible outlet to sell their goods. Consumers benefit from not having to venture far from home to purchase food and other supplies, keeping them safe while supporting their own communities. Quezon City’s program is just one example, of course; many other cities and municipalities have rolled out similar programs to benefit their people.

For now, the “Buy Local, Go Lokal” program exists largely as a public information campaign — which we here at The

Manila Times are helping to support — but other DTI initiatives to help MSMEs cope with the effects of the Covid- 19 pandemic are aligned with “Buy Local, Go Lokal” principle. Without prejudice to anything the DTI may already be developing, we can make a couple of recommendations to expand the reach and impact of the initiative:

– Find ways to further simplify business and tax registration, particularly for small, tax- exempt entrepreneurs: To be fair, the Bureau of Internal Revenue ( BIR) and the DTI, as well as many LGUs, have made a great deal of progress in streamlining and digitizing business registration and tax compliance requirements. The number of would- be entrepreneurs has exploded in the past couple of months, however, as many people who have seen their regular incomes disappear have turned to creative pursuits to earn a living, and for many of these firsttime business owners, regulatory processes are still tedious and frustrating. The DTI and BIR should interact more with these entrepreneurs to learn where remaining “pain points” in the processes are, and find ways to make it easier for someone to both start a small business and be in legal good standing.

– Find ways to expand the online marketplace for entrepreneurs who have less access to the internet. Much of the DTI’s business support thinking is based on activity in the physical world, and this is wrong. Even without community quarantines in place, the persistence of the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to drive commercial activity to digital platforms for the foreseeable future. Without support for entrepreneurs who do not have reliable internet access, a big economic gap between those who are connected and those who are not will continue to grow.

As we have seen with the expansion of entrepreneurship under the cloud of Covid- 19 — there can be no truer proof of the old wisdom, “necessity is the mother of invention” — there is great potential in the MSME sector to drive economic recovery and growth, and it is good that the DTI recognizes that. Putting even more effort into supporting it will create even more opportunities and benefits for the Filipino people.