CEBU CITY – Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia wants creativity and competitiveness to be among the key standards in the provincial government’s assistance program for micro, small and medium enterprises.
Garcia recommended the format for the competition of the MSME aid program will be patterned after the Capitol’s SugBusog (Sugbuanong Busog, Luwas ug Himsog) project to boost enthusiasm among participants wherein enterprises would be judged according to most creative product developments, the level of their success and sustainability, among other metrics.
SugBusog is a vegetable gardening competition project of the Provincial Agriculturist’s Office.
Garcia said she seeks to challenge not just the spirit of entrepreneurship of Cebuanos but their spirit of creativity as well.
She added spurring entrepreneurship among the constituents should also encourage local sourcing of materials and coming up with an end-product.
“We will add these to our guidelines that they (beneficiaries) should have an end-product. And they should be Cebu-made products made from locally sourced materials,” the governor said.
The provincial government’s assistance program is meant to help displaced workers resuscitate their livelihoods or start an economic enterprise.
“This will give them hope, especially our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) who lost their jobs. This can help them restart,” Garcia added.
The Capitol has allotted a P15-million fund for the Office of the Vice Governor and P5 million each for the 17 provincial board members to implement the micro-business assistance program for displaced workers and members of the marginalized sectors identified by the Social Welfare Development Office.
The Capitol, in carrying out the micro-business aid program, took cue from the Department of Trade and Industry’s “Negosyo sa Barangay” project which jump-started in the third district through Rep. Pablo John Garcia’s “Panginabuhi Jud” project wherein entrepreneurs get P6,000 grant each in business capital coupons to be redeemed for goods essential in running the business.
Garcia agrees that assistance should be in kind, not in financial form to discourage recipients from squandering the money.
