MSMEs do not need more training and mentoring

The employers group led by businessman Mr. Joey Concepcion was tasked by President Marcos Jr. a couple of months ago to help MSMEs rev up the economy and hire more; the employers group’s response was on more plans for tutoring MSMEs on managerial and marketing skills, developing their operations for exports, etc.; and for the workers, seminars on upgrading technological skills. I beg to respectfully disagree that the immediate solution is found in more mentoring and tutoring. It’s time the country stepped out of that mindset.

We have become skeptical of solutions to employment in upgrading of skills or having an atmosphere conducive to business, etc. If we lack the skills, why then is 15 percent of our workforce forced to leave homes and families as OFWs and land jobs in demand abroad? And why aren’t most retailing MSMEs not fully operating after restrictions have already been lifted following the pandemic?

Have the employers group done any goading on Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to aggressively provide capital funds to retool without commercial hassle of requiring viability projects, past three years experience, and collaterals? Under unstable economic prospects, the DTI should be like a bank on wheels akin to the way the ambulant Indian lenders aggressively extend to small operators and shops weekly operating loans.

The Small Business Corporation (SB Corp.) is the attached entity of DTI created by law to grant low interest, hassle free loans to MSMEs. But its record was quite dismal when tasked to give out the P10-billion emergency recovery loans in 2021, post-COVID. It took them one year to grant all the loans!

My differing personal assessment:

The lack of workers and management skills is not the problem. An estimated 60 percent hiring in the domestic market comes from around one million MSMEs with average hiring of 20 workers, which in turn rely on consumer spending from government and households, which arise from private employment, which in turn relies on the MSMEs, and which in turn relies on consumer spending in the domestic market, and so on, and so forth. That is the vicious cycle.

Workers’ lack of skills is not a concern because we are even losing 15 percent of our young, skilled, and able-bodied workforce as OFWs since we cannot develop our own industries to create jobs for them. Besides, we have Tesda, the government agency tasked to cover such trainings.

Millions are still jobless, waiting for opportunities to find work. That is the problem at the core. No opportunities with business still in the doldrums. Meanwhile, the labor unions are still angling at increasing the minimum wage, a meaningless feather on their leadership cap, to compel Congress to give in with many MSMEs still floundering.

May I then suggest this urgent, proven, apropos workable solution:

The employers group and the labor groups cannot continue on a “wait and see” for business demand to perk up by itself and hire people. How or when? Who or what will make it happen? Meantime, hunger stalks the land. First of all, both groups must be practical and creative for once. Help their company survive, first and foremost: Labor should drop demands for minimum wage or any wage hike, and instead agree to be partners for progress. How? By increasing the company revenues first, and share in every peso increase in revenues hereon. The DOLE and DTI can help forge this winning out of the box formula for both parties.

The profit sharing agreement can be given a period of moratorium on wage grievances and industrial peace. There’s nothing in such agreement for labor or capital to lose. What is needed is for all parties to get the special legislation passed by Congress to legitimize their consensual agreement for the overall good, and consider this the NEED of the hour for their company!

We are being overtaken by events. Many of our workers are now scurrying to apply for high paying jobs abroad. Countries like New Zealand, which has lately offered jobs with promise of immediate resident status, the aging population of Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, the Middle East, and many other countries that are experiencing the downside effect of years of extreme population control, now lack young able-bodied workers to run their industries.

With Republic Act No. 11595, otherwise known as “An Act amending Republic Act No. 8762 [or] the ‘Retail Trade Liberalization Act of 2000,’” we will have more foreign retail enterprises in many of our industries where our 70 million workforce will be in demand and will come in handy.

MARVEL K. TAN,

[email protected]