Senate approves bill institutionalizing shared service facilities for MSMEs

By: Beatrice Pinlac - 2 years ago

Marlene Cenina, 39, sewer, poses for a picture inside the factory where she works making Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontliners during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, in Cainta, Philippines, on April 24, 2020. - Ahead of May Day on May 1, 2020, AFP portrayed workers defying the novel coronavirus around the world. Marlene Cenina lost her job as a sewer after the lockdown and is now working as a volunteer to make personal protective equipment (PPE) as she deemed it important to help frontliners battling COVID-19 disease, though small it maybe, she says. Cenina is scared she might contract the disease but still thinks her job is to help others for the common good. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP)

SMALL TO MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESS Marlene Cenina, 39, sewer, poses for a picture inside the factory where she works making Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontliners during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, in Cainta, Philippines, on April 24, 2020. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Monday approved on the third and final reading of the bill institutionalizing shared service facilities (SSF) for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

With 21 affirmative votes, no negative votes, and no abstentions, Senate Bill No. 2021, or the proposed amendments to the Magna Carta for Small Enterprises was passed.

The bill puts in place the Department of Trade and Industry’s SSF program “in order to address the gaps in the production value chain, promote innovation among MSMEs and enhance their capacities to produce and offer sophisticated and diverse products and services.”

“There were years when the SSF project was not funded, and this is what will be addressed with this bill,” Senator Sonny Angara, principal author and sponsor of the bill, said in a statement.

SSFs, he said, will help small businesses that cannot buy their own equipment to develop their operations further.

“It is just right that we ensure the consistent implementation of this measure,” Angara said in Filipino.

Under the bill, SSF fabrication laboratories – or “high-end SSFs equipped with an array of flexible computer-controlled tools” – will be established in at least one strategic location in every province.

These would be attached to state, local, or private schools, universities and colleges, and government academic training institutions of the province.

“Through these SSFs, the MSMEs can scale up their production, improve on their packaging, and introduce innovations to their products,” Angara said.

There were around 1.76 million MSMEs operating in the country, based on Philippine Statistics Authority’s List of Establishments in 2021.

It noted this is 99.58 percent of the 1.80 million recorded business enterprises during that year.

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