IFC urges SMEs to implement integrity practices in operations

MANILA, Philippines -  The International Finance Corp. (IFC) is urging small and medium enterprises (SME) to incorporate integrity practices into their operations to increase their access to financing, expand market share, and cut costs.

IFC is the private sector investing arm of the World Bank.

In a two-day workshop that ended Friday, IFC officials introduced to SMEs tools to deal with corruption, misconduct, and other ethical issues in business.

The IFC officials noted that integrating integrity policies and practices into the SME’s businesses allows them to meet borrowing requirements, qualify to do business with larger organizations and be part of global supply chains.

IFC’s resident representative in the Philippines Jesse Ang said there is strong evidence that good integrity performance can help SMEs save costs, access financial markets, and become accredited suppliers to large international buyers.

“This is part of IFC’s initiatives in promoting good governance both in the private and public sectors to increase business competitiveness,” he said.

During the workshop, IFC’s corporate governance, sustainability and SME experts shared ideas and international best practices based on IFC’s SME Toolkit.

World Bank surveys in 29 countries indicate that small enterprises are more adversely affected by corruption than big ones, and that the majority of SMEs consider corruption a constraint to their business.

Ang explained that the IFC has been working with business groups to raise integrity standards in order to attract new investments for the private sector. The workshop is part of a series on business integrity which IFC is organizing in Kenya, Lebanon, Serbia and Colombia to help SMEs achieve long-term and sustainable growth.

Meanwhile, the World Bank granted a technical assistance and capacity building program entitled Building on the Full Disclosure Policy: Strengthening Citizen Demand for Local Governance to support the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).