Pascual lauds Senate for amending MSME law

TRADE and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual commended the Senate on Thursday for passing Senate Bill (SB) 2021, which amended Republic Act 6977, also known as the “Magna Carta for Small Enterprises.”

Speaking in Filipino, Pascual thanked Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, in particular, for being the principal sponsor of SB 2021 and for tirelessly pushing for its passage.

SB 2021 seeks to institutionalize Shared Service Facilities (SSFs) to address the gaps in the production value chain, promote innovation and enhance the micro, small and medium enterprises’ (MSMEs) capacity through accessing machines, tools and relevant knowledge.

Pascual said this will greatly help SMEs in their productivity.

“Maraming MSMEs na ang nagbahagi ng kanilang mga kwento ng tagumpay na kung saan isa sa mga instrumento nito ay ang mga makinarya at kagamitang naibahagi sa kanila sa pamamagitan ng SSF (Many MSMEs shared their success stories and part of it was because of the machines and equipment provided by the SSF),” he said.

He added that the Department of Trade and Industry will be able to cooperate with other agencies to address the needs of MSMEs through various programs in order to keep up with current trends worldwide, as well as increase their profits.

Since 2013, SSFs have generated more than 300,000 jobs and helped more than 500,000 MSMEs.

As of 2022, the country has a total of 145 SSFs for the production of P150 million worth of various agricultural products.

SSFs saw the creation of 16 fabrication laboratories to help MSMEs produce prototypes of their innovations all over the country and shall be attached to state universities and colleges, private schools and government academic training institutions.