At two major business events held last week, Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion reiterated the importance of upscaling MSMEs and upskilling workers.

Speaking to nearly a thousand cooperatives at the 3rd Metro Manila Cooperative Congress and to government agencies and the business community at the 2024 Arangkada Philippines Forum, Concepcion reiterated the importance of a robust MSME sector in creating businesses, and of a workforce that is ready for the challenges of artificial intelligence and automation. 

“If we get to the largest sectors, to the poorest, then our economy will grow rapidly and more jobs will be created and wages will increase, not because labor mandates us to increase wages but because there will be a supply shortage in labor,” he said.

Concepcion observed that cooperatives closely resemble the conditions for successful entrepreneurship; that is, they provideaccess to mentorship, money and markets to their smaller members. “These are the three pillars which we promote in our advocacy at Go Negosyo. The bigger cooperatives mentor the smaller cooperatives, and as they do, they grow and become stronger,” he said.

He added that cooperatives provide the scale that is needed by small entrepreneurs. “The key is good leadership; people who lead cooperatives should have the entrepreneurial, marketing and digital skills necessary today,” he said. The community of member-cooperatives of the organization is estimated to havetotal assets of Php 179.3 billion and more than 1.8 million members. “Cooperatives provide the scale that small entrepreneurs need,” he said. “We can eradicate poverty by helping MSMEs scale up.”

According to data from the Department of Trade and Industry, MSMEs comprise 99 percent of enterprises in the Philippines and generate 65 percent of jobs. “Upscaling our MSMEs will have a huge impact because these efforts will trickle down to the grassroots and benefit more communities in more parts of the country,” he said.

Concepcion added that access to capital and public-private partnerships continue to be critical in achieving MSME growth. “There’s a lot of effort being done to encourage the microfinance institutions to increase lending, while the public-private sector partnership is helping us in the private sectorreach out to the grassroots.”

He said private sector is also working with government to align the curriculum and training (including digital skills) based on industry standards so that the workforce can be ready to take on jobs. “This makes the effort of upskilling more efficient and effective because industry itself is giving guidance,” he said.

The Cooperative Congress, led by its chair Fr. Anton CT Pascual, was organized by the One Cooperative Federation (OCF), the Union of Metro Manila Cooperatives (UMMC), the Regional Cooperative Development Council – NCR (RCDC-NCR), and the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA – NCR), while Arangkada was organized by the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines.