Government supports digital transformation of MSMEs

MANILA, Philippines — Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can use a self-assessment toolkit to measure their readiness to embark on the digital transformation as they onboard to digital platforms or marketplaces.

Wea Bohol, officer-in-charge of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) E-Commerce Division, said the Digital Maturity & Digital Mindset (DM2) toolkit is a free to use diagnostic test or survey that will enable these firms to self-assess their level of digital maturity to identify training modules that will help accelerate digital transformation.

“Eventually through this toolkit, assist and then it will provide you recommendations in terms of capacity building,” she said in a webinar, adding the DM2 toolkit is projected to be used by about 1.5 million MSMEs, regional offices, as well as Negosyo Center business counselors.

Bohol said the DTI has been active to support these firms, especially in equipping them with the necessary skills for their businesses to adapt to the rapid shift to digital economy.

“We will be updating, enhancing the DM2 project. So we will be assessing the content of course and making it more robust.. we could develop more content,” she said.

Apart from the self-assessment toolkit, Bohol said the department embarked on various programs and projects to help MSMEs access bigger markets, and enable them to respond to changing market demands for quality and new products, processes, and business models.

It is also assisting these firms to make products more affordable to consumers and more competitive in the domestic and global markets, she added.

“DTI wanted to help MSMEs graduate from micro to small, small to medium, medium to large,” she said.

Bohol said there is a series of free webinars that are targeted to MSMEs who need to transform their business digitally.

“Enablers across the entire e-commerce ecosystem will provide their expertise and experiences on how to take advantage of the digital space,” she said.

To enable jobs-skills mismatch and skills upgrading, Bohol said the department has been implementing the Pivot Embrace Technology (PET) project, which includes a certification program for e-commerce skills.

“This is a six-month digital certification program that we offer for free for different PET scholars so we are now wrapping up the round 2 of the PET project this coming September,” she said.

Bohol said other components of the PET project are the e-commerce pathway for senior high school students and the unemployed, and work remote.