DTI, ILO sign MOU for MSME training

The regional operations group of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), through the Bureau of Small and Medium Enterprise Development (BSMED), has inked a memorandum of understanding with the International Labor Organization (ILO) for the roll-out of digital entrepreneurship and productivity training for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

“Through this partnership, over 20,000 MSMEs and informal businesses will have an edge to information and trainings that allow them to digitalize their businesses at start-up and implementation phases,” the DTI said.

The training will be in collaboration with the DTI’s Regional and Provincial Offices nationwide.

“The DTI’s intervention through the ILO’s flagship program, Safety Plus Health For All, offers a tailored set of assistance addressing immediate and long-term safety and health needs of constituents inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” DTI Regional Operations Group (ROG) Undersecretary Blesila Lantayona said during the MOU signing.

Under the MOU, DTI, the Philippine Trade Training Center and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority will provide DTI’s Negosyo Centers’ Business Counsellors on the ground the digital trainings with capacity strengthening activities to nurture and strengthen the goal of the programs reaching the targeted MSMEs and informal businesses.

The ILO training called Start and Improve Your Business and Financial Education are designed to improve digitalization capacities of those categorized from non-users to basic users of digital technologies across their business processes, boosting efficiency and productivity and fostering better working conditions.

“We are honoured that the relevance of these ILO interventions has been confirmed by partners as being contributory to the National Employment and Recovery Strategy as well as the E-Commerce Roadmap, and the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion, among other important programs on livelihood and local economic development,” ILO country director Khalid Hassan said.

“In President Marcos’ first state of the nation address on July 25, 2022, he identified inclusive digital transformation and continued support to MSMEs as part of his immediate priorities and agenda for the next six years,” he said.

The ILO also offers training through the Japan-funded project Bringing Back Jobs Safely Under the COVID 19 Crisis in the Philippines: Rebooting Small and Informal Businesses Safely and Digitally, taking from global programs and adapting them to local country context.

The ILO project intends to establish a team of local trainers in the Philippines.