JAKARTA – President Marcos 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 employment in the Philippines.
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 were being sold. Indonesian President Joko Widodo toured Marcos and First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos around the Sarinah mall last 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,” the President added.