SSS allots P180 billion for investments this year

MANILA, Philippines - The Social Security System (SSS) has earmarked P180 billion this year for investments, a ranking official said over the weekend.

In an interview with The STAR, SSS board member Donald Dee said that the pension fund has already approved P180 billion for its investments.

“This is good but I want to see it invested in SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) because not enough emphasis is placed on SMEs,” Dee said.

According to him, most of the money is given to large enterprises and commercial banks. However, he said those that need the most funds are SMEs because they are the lifeblood of the economy.

As such, Dee said he has proposed allotting at least P5 billion of the P180 billion for SMEs. He said they are looking at tapping the help of Small Business Corp. (SB Corp.) to help them reach the SMEs.

Lending for micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) went down by P1 billion last year when compared to 2008 because of the financial crisis that has hit most of the countries worldwide.

SB Corp. president Benel Lagua said that they expect borrowing to drop to P3 billion from a high of P4 billion in 2008. He said the 2008 figures was the highest they recorded in the past five years.

“The drop was a result of the crisis. There was a lag in the effect of the crisis. It didn’t hit us last year. We are feeling it this year,” Lagua noted.

He said a number of MSMEs have placed their expansion plans on hold and focused on survival instead because of the global financial crisis.

In fact, he said that there was a drastic plunge in borrowings of export oriented firms. “The decline was very big but we hope to recover next year.”

Borrowings was concentrated in the domestic industry which made up 80 percent of the lending. Business that borrowed for expansions belong to the food, services, outsourcing and manufacturing sector.

For this year, Lagua said they are hoping to regain the P1 billion they lost this year. “We are looking at P4 billion in lending in 2010.”