Support MSMEs to address poverty – Pacquiao at Go Negosyo

MANILA, Philippines — Revitalizing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) battered by the pandemic is among the keys in solving poverty and hunger, Sen. Manny Pacquiao said yesterday.

Pacquiao issued the statement at the Go Negosyo’s KandidaTalks forum for presidential candidates on Monday, wherein he discussed parts of his economic and business agenda for the country.

“We have to help small businesses recover from this health crisis. These MSMEs provide livelihood to people in the countryside,” he said, adding that MSMEs contributed much to the economy and generated jobs for the masses.

Pacquiao cited studies showing MSMEs comprise 99 percent of all businesses in the country.

“If we only channel our energies on these MSMEs, we are almost assured that these can provide more jobs to our people. This simply means more food on the table, hunger can be eradicated,” he added.

Pacquiao promised that if he gets elected in May 2022, he would allocate funds to finance interest-free loans for MSMEs.

He said he used to repack garlic and black pepper and sell these just to make ends meet.

He cited results of a survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations, which showed that 2.5 million Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.

The same survey also indicated that around 10 percent of families went hungry due to lack of food in the past quarter.

He said he would create more one-stop shops and online portals for convenient processing of business permits and loan applications as well as eradicate red tape.