The Department of Trade and Industry’s various livelihood programs have benefited a total of 13,918 barangays across the country.
Over the weekend, Secretary Ramon Lopez reported to President Rodrigo Duterte that the DTI provided livelihood training and assistance to 154,000 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Lopez stated that the DTI assists both domestic and international workers who have been displaced due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
“We teach them how to fish rather than dole out PHP10,000,”
Lopez said during the Cabinet meeting and Talk to the People on Friday night and aired Saturday morning.
The Livelihood Seeding Program provides livelihood kits worth PHP5,000 to PHP10,000 while the Programa sa Pangkabuhayan sa Pagbangon at Ginhawa conducts training in entrepreneurship to those affected by calamities, has provided 24,000 livelihood kits, and assisted 26,930.
The DTI also provides access to its financing arm, Small Business (SB) Corp, which provides zero-interest loans to existing MSMEs affected by the Covid-19 through its Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program.
SB Corp. has been providing low-interest loans through the Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso (P3) Program since before the Covid-19 outbreak.
The P3 Program provides microloans to the target beneficiaries in order to keep them away from loan sharks.