The Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) – Philippines and the Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation (SERDEF) formally entered into a joint commitment to work for the creation of a more enterprising Philippine society through micro, small and medium enterprise (mSME) development.
The Memorandum of Agreement was signed yesterdayJune 21, at the SERDEF office by Octavio Peralta, ADFIAP Secretary General and Dr. Paterno V. Viloria, SERDEF president with ADFIAP Consulting Head Corazon Conde and SERDEF Executive Director Nestor O. Raneses witnessing the signing.
ADFIAP is an association of development banks and other financial institutions engaged in the financing of development in the Asia Pacific region, with 131 member-institutions in 45 countries, including the Philippines. It mission is to advance sustainable development by strengthening the development finance function and institutions, enhancing capacity of members and its human resources, and advocating development finance innovations.
Specifically, ADFIAP and SERDEF will jointly undertake innovative projects designed to accelerate the development of entrepreneurial and managerial resources through conduct of entrepreneurship training, research studies and other development programs.
During the discussions that preceded the signing, the tourism sector was identified as one of the priority sectors for development assistance for the purpose of boosting the sector’s access to financing. Capability building is needed not only for entrepreneurs to be more bankable but also for the bank officers and staff to understand more fully their small business-clients and their credit needs.
Another market that can be tapped is the LGUs – in terms of providing them with innovative financing mechanism to enable them to support business initiatives by their respective constituency. Local businesses, it was pointed out, should preferably be clustered to facilitate intervention and make it cost-effective.
The ADFIAP’s sustainable entrepreneurship innovation program was discussed, where participants bring in a project idea that they want to develop and ADFIAP and its partners helping them develop and build up the project. The process goes through the phases of strategic business planning, branding, process technology selection, among others.
Designated as point persons for the joint projects that would come out of the agreement were Arlene Orencia for ADFIAP and Arlene Liberal for SERDEF.
