The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) yesterday launched Strengthening Private Enterprise for the Digital Economy (SPEED), a P1-billion program targeting to digitally transform an initial 30,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) over the next five years.
“This partnership with the Philippine government aims to enable small and medium enterprises to participate safely reliably and competitively in the country’s emerging e-commerce (electronic commerce) ecosystem,” said MaryKay Carlson, US ambassador to the Philippines, in her speech at the launch.
Under the SPEED project, Carlson said USAID will continue to work with the Philippine government and private sector partners, including technology experts and innovators to create an efficient and interoperable logistics and digital payments ecosystem and to assist in the establishment. of domestic and cross-border trade processes to promote inclusive business development and increase SME participation in global value chains.
Carlson said the USAID will assist the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in achieving its goal on the onboarding thousands of SMEs into the various digital platforms.
She added the US will also assist the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in reaching its target of 50 percent e- payment transactions in 2023 and higher e-payments uptake in the succeeding years.
In his speech, DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual said SPEED can help digitalizing SMEs so they can operate more efficiently, reduce costs, reach bigger markets, and earn more profits.
“For example, digital systems of enterprises can accumulate cashflow data on sales, use enterprise data for credit scoring, and provide access to cashflow-based credit,” Pascual said. Irma Isip
