PH Gov’t Lends P4.5-B to MSMEs

The Philippine government through the Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) Program of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) lent PHP4.5 billion worth of loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which were approved as of June 9.

DTI said in a statement that the approved zero-interest loans were able to help the business of 30,408 MSMEs.

The loan was rolled out by the financing arm of the DTI, Small Business (SB) Corp., which aims to aid business in their recovery from the losses brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DTI through the CARES program have provided aid to businesses since the start of the pandemic. The initial fund for the program started out at 1 billion from the 2020 budget, with another 10 billion added from the Bayanihan to Recover as One (Bayanihan 2) law.

PHP6 billion of the 10 billion funding from Bayanihan 2 were allotted for MSMEs in the tourism industry, one of the more heavily affected industries that were negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DTI is currently accelerating the roll out for the remaining budget of the loan program as Bayanihan 2 will only take effect until June 30 of this year. the trade department is now working with the Department of Tourism (DOT) for the allocation of the remaining budget for the CARES for TRAVEL (Tourism Rehabilitation and Vitalization of Enterprises and Livelihood) program. (GFB)