Marcos open to copying state-owned Indonesia mall for MSME products
JAKARTA — President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is open to the idea of building a state-owned mall for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the sector that generates the bulk of the Philippines' employment.
Speaking to journalists who covered his three-day state visit here, Marcos said he was invited by the Indonesian government to a mall where the products of MSMEs are being sold. Indonesian President Joko Widodo toured Marcos and First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos around the Sarinah mall on Monday.
"The mall shown to us is owned by the government and all the products being sold inside the mall are local, all of them from MSMEs. If they are already large, they would no longer be allowed in the mall. They would be transferred to a regular mall," Marcos said in Filipino.
"So ‘yun ang idea nila. So, sabi ko, baka pwede natin gawin sa Pilipinas (That's their idea. I said, maybe we can do the same in the Philippines)," he added
Marcos said he and Widodo had a "very good" exchange of ideas about helping small businesses. He said he mentioned to the Indonesian leader the One Town, One Product program, which assists localities in developing and promoting products or services that are rooted in their local cultures and community resources.
Marcos said he and Widodo have agreed that MSMES should be assisted in terms of packaging and marketing their products and developing their business plan.
"The parallels between the Indonesian experience and the Philippine experience are very evident. So we will build on that. We will build on that," the President added.
Micro enterprises are businesses whose asset sizes are P3 million or less while small businesses have asset sizes ranging from P3,000,001 to P15 million. Medium enterprises are businesses with asset sizes ranging from P15,000,001 to P100 million.
According to the trade department, MSMEs generated a total of 5,380,815 jobs or 62.66% of the country’s total employment in 2020. Micro enterprises produced the biggest share with 29.38%, followed by small enterprises while medium enterprises accounted for 7.5%.
Large enterprises generated 3,206,011 jobs or 37.34% of the country’s overall employment.
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