For SMES, Dutch experts offer free consultancy

CEBU, Philippines - PUM Netherlands has deployed Dutch experts and senior managers to provide assistance to entrepreneurs in developing countries.

The program, which offers free consultations to small and medium enterprises, is subsidized by the Dutch government and its employer organization VNO-NCW, thus requesting parties from all parts of the world will only cover the cost of the local stay of the experts.

PUM Netherlands senior experts’ local representative Emma A. Ramas said that currently there are only a few Filipino companies and organizations who know about the PUM program although there have been several recipients in the country already.

She said that PUM deploys senior experts who work on the basis of the extensive expertise and experience that they have accumulated during their long careers in business.

Ramas said that the request made by a particular business serves as a basis for every placement and the PUM expert would then travel to provide on-site assistance to these parties in the form of consultancies.

She said that although PUM do not give out monetary allocations, the experts evaluate and identify problems of a specific company and provide them potential areas of improvement through applicable recommendations.

She said that SMEs, local government units (LGUs), non-government organizations (NGOs) are qualified to apply to get free consultations from Dutch experts and the process is easy as requests and information could be easily accessed through the www.pum.nl website.

Currently, PUM has 4,000 experts which enable them to advise a broad range of subjects and areas of expertise such as agriculture and horticultural, metal industry, electro technical and engineering sector, business support and management, healthcare, food and beverage production, energy, water and environment, transport and logistics, financial institutes, publishing and printing, tourism, hotel and catering; as well as training and education, among others.

Ramas said that here in Cebu, a number of institutions have already benefited from PUM experts and some of these projects and consultation stints included the solid waste management program of Balamban, Tabok Rural water works system, design seminar for seven export companies, consultation on pilferage participated by different retail stores and also made agricultural and food processing consultancies.

She said that this year Cebu has around 15 allocations and so far around six experts were sent to provide consultancy to different fields and this coming July, a spa expert will be coming over to provide training to the wellness sector.

“We hope that more municipalities as well as SMEs will take advantage of our Dutch experts. Because of the economic crisis, the Dutch government has directed us to provide support to as many SMEs who need our experts even if it means that the government will have to shoulder most of the expenses,” said Ramas.

Right now, PUM already has 30 years of experience helping around 75 sectors and rolls out 2, 000 missions each year to 70 countries worldwide.

Right now, the program is re-aligning its focus on environmental projects and it has started to also do more projects in Africa although here in the Philippines, they are still tipping support on cities like Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao.