It has been almost two years since the pandemic brought Filipino life and many livelihoods to a screeching halt. According to a 2020 Asian Development Bank (ADB) study of 1,804 Philippine MSMEs, 70.6% were forced to temporarily close with 66.2% reported to have temporary staff cuts during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Bucking these statistics and the odds created by the changes in the landscape, the enterprising Filipino found many opportunities in online businesses, with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) recording over 88,000 new e-commerce registrations at the end of 2020. This figure is projected to be a million e-commerce enterprises by 2022 (from 500,000 in 2020). By taking advantage of the online space, MSME owners have become unsung heroes of the economy, all the while providing for their families and making their business dreams a reality.
SM Supermalls very well understands the potential of each Filipino to be successful business owners because of their founder, the late Mr. Henry Sy’s own inspiring story. Sy, fondly called “Tatang” in SM, started out as a small business owner with his first footwear shop ShoeMart.
The SM StartUp Package was launched with a webinar-press event hosted by (upper L-R) Sam YG, with learning boards from SM tenant-partners fashion designer Patty Ang of athleisure wear brand Patton and young e-commerce entrepreneur Jerald Sze of Straightfoward.
Giving words of advice to start-ups were (middle L-R) Mary Jean T. Pacheco, Assistant Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry; Steven T. Tan, President, SM Supermalls; and Karen Cua, SVP & MSME Business Head, BDO Network Bank.
To detail the assistance that start-ups can expect from SM are (lower L-R) Gina T. Katigbak, AVP, Leasing Strategy & Operations, SM Supermalls; Bob Tolentino, FVP, Merchant Partnerships Retail Sales Head, BDO; and Grace F. Magno, VP, Corporate Marketing, SM Supermalls
Read more »