Franchise expo offers opportunities to MSMEs

MANILA, Philippines - The organizers of the forthcoming Franchise Expo 2010 are preparing a wide array of business opportunities for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their relatives, including the country’s growing number of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Apart from the more than 300 types of franchised businesses to be showcased by the Philippine Franchise Association (PFA) for MSMEs and OFWs, a free seminar on “How to Buy the Right Franchise” will also be conducted during the staging of Franchise Expo 2010 at the SMX Convention Center on July 16-18.

PFA chairman emeritus Samie Lim said the exhibits would include businesses requiring gross capitalization of as low as P300,000 that OFWs and micro enterprises could easily afford. “The Franchise Expo is indeed a one-stop shop. We have a showcase of the best franchise investment opportunities available, plus we’re helping would-be franchisees to make wise franchise investments by offering them a free seminar,” Lim said.

“The expo will have other allied services to assist the OFWs and micro entrepreneurs in going about the entire process of getting into business,” Lim added.

As such, Franchise Expo 2010 shall serve as an effective venue in channeling the OFW remittances into wise and profitable investments, according to PFA chairman and Max’s Restaurant president Robert S. Trota.

“These investments will contribute significantly to the country’s economic expansion and help sustain the first quarter’s 7.3-percent GDP (gross domestic product) growth for the rest of the year,” Trota pointed out.

PFA vice chairman Bing S. Limjoco said the start of economic recovery in the US would have a positive global effect that could further increase the already record levels of OFW remittances.

“Our OFWs and their relatives should then take advantage of this development by going into franchised businesses, which have consistently proven to have the highest probability of success,” Limjoco stressed.

PFA president Yvette Pardo-Orbeta said the record $17.1 billion remittances in full-year 2009 and the $4.3 billion in first quarter 2010 confirmed this uptrend.

“Our OFWs and their relatives must not let this wealth of financial inflows to slip through their fingers and simply vanish in unrestrained consumption since part of that amount can be invested in productive and lucrative enterprises,” Orbeta stressed.

More information can be obtained from www.franchise2010.com where visitors can register on-line for special admission rates.

Other expo details are available at the PFA secretariat (tel. 02-6870365 to 67, 09178320732, or e-mail [email protected]), or through exhibit management team Global Link MP Events (tel. 02-7508588 or e-mail [email protected]).