DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 11 August) – Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) prefer to borrow from cooperatives rather than banks because small business owners prefer the simplicity of the financing schemes in cooperatives over the banks’ stringent policies, an official of the Department of Trade and Industry said.
In an interview at the sidelines of Monday’s Kapehan sa SM, Marie Anne How, chief of DTI’s Trade and MSME Development Division said MSMEs “would rather borrow from co-ops because when they go to banks, they will be required to submit different requirements. For businesses below P3 million, some of them find this difficult and taxing,” she said.
“What’s good about cooperatives is that you only have to rely on your credit standing within your coop,” she said.
Banks on the other hand, require character background investigations and a lot of financial requirements.
How said that financing and other topics will be discussed in the upcoming National MSME Summit at the SMX Convention Center in Lanang on August 20 to 21.
She said the DTI is pushing for MSMEs to be at the frontlines of the ASEAN integration in 2015.
Successful entrepreneurs in industries such as food processing and houseware will share best practices during the summit.
Value chain trends and financial management will also be discussed. (MindaNews)
