DTI wants 2017 budget doubled

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) wants its budget doubled next year to speed up the development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the agency is seeking a budget of more than P6 billion for 2017, almost double its P3.7-billion allocation this year.

“So it has to be bigger than that. Looking at all the expenses, if you want to do and bring more employment, more enterprises, then it has to increase to close to double (from its present amount),” Lopez said in an interview on the sidelines of the Franchise Asia Philippines 2016 Conference and Expo yesterday.

“The budget of DTI is very small, even less than one percent of overall government budget so we want to ask for more so we can do more shared service facilities (SSF) and Negosyo Centers that can translate to more MSMEs and jobs,” he added.

Lopez said bulk of DTI’s additional budget request for next year would be used to spur development of MSMEs in the country.

The presence of SSF and Negosyo Centers in municipalities and provinces across the country is aimed to provide better and more efficient services to MSMEs.

“MSMEs would account for almost half. It will be a big part of the proposed budget because it will include construction of additional SSF. For our agency, that serves as our infrastructure to assist MSMEs,” Lopez said.

“And we will also host the ASEAN Summit next year so we have to budget for that. We can’t avoid that because it goes around as part of our ASEAN membership,” he added.

Lopez, however, said the magnitude of next year’s hosting would not be as big as last year’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.

The current administration has vowed to support development of local MSMEs, President Duterte during his campaign promised a P1-billion allocation for them.

Lopez, for his part, has been regarded as an MSME advocate prior to his post as DTI chief.