MANILA, Philippines – PLDT Smart SME Nation held last week the third installment of their annual tech-for-business conference dubbed as TechIsland 3.0 as it continues the mission to nurture and empower the country’s micro, small and medium entreprises (MSMEs).
Over a thousand MSMEs flocked to the Harbor Tent at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila in Pasay City to gain valuable insight from the telco industry leaders on how to make it big in their business and to solve real-life problems using digital solutions. TechIsland 3.0 was the largest and most-attended version of the event to date.
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This year, TechIsland revolved around the theme “Challenge. Change. Conquer.," encouraging MSMEs to challenge the status quo, change the way they do business and conquer new territories in today’s enterprise landscape.
One of the realities that TechIsland sought to address was the considerable gap between many business owners and the simple and readily available digital solutions that have the potential to make their businesses substantially more competitive and profitable.
For instance, while the MSME sector makes up virtually the entire industry population of the Philippines—about 99.6 percent to be exact—only 1 percent is present online and not all of them have fully functional websites.
PLDT Smart SME Nation responded to this by designing over 1,400 websites and giving them away to TechIsland attendees—ready-to-use and absolutely free.
PLDT vice president and head of SME Nation Mitch Locsin made the surprise announcement to all the attendees at the Harbor Tent before the event officially opened.
“Our goal is to get our MSMEs online and encourage them to take advantage of the e-commerce space and other digital tools available for the growth of their business,” said Locsin. “We aim to boost their capabilities as they form the essential backbone of the economy, representing 99 percent of Philippine businesses.”
To further reinforce its commitment to empowering and enabling Filipino entrepreneurs, this unprecedented undertaking was done with the help of students of St. Mutien College in Pampanga. These students designed over 30 percent of the websites and will continue to be engaged by PLDT Smart SME Nation for future projects.
As part of its commitment to digitally empower MSMEs with digital tools and business solutions, the micro, small and medium enterprise arm of the country’s leading telecommunications company makes it its goal to bring the focus back to nation-building by further empowering the Filipino entrepreneur to make it big in the ever expanding digital nation.