Nine more new partners of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development for Sustainable Employment Program in other provinces in Western Visayas are also offering business development services for small and medium enterprises in the top sectors of the region.

Two partners in Negros Occidental, the Multi-Sectoral Alliance for Development-Negros and the Negros Economic Development Foundation Inc., were launched on Feb. 26 Bacolod City.

The BDS partners in Capiz were introduced on Feb. 21; Guimaras, Feb. 22; Aklan, Feb. 27; and Iloilo, Feb. 28.

BDS are non-financial services aimed to improve the performance of enterprises, their access to markets and their ability to compete.

In Capiz, the SMEDSEP BDS partners are the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Center Inc., Earth Care Consultancy and RDO Consultancy; Guimaras, Guimaras State College;  Aklan, Athena Business Solutions and Management Services and Skill Share Plus Consultancy; and Iloilo, Central Philippine University-Business Development, Information and Technology Center, Mixes Processed Foods, and UP Visayas-Institute of Fish Processing Technology.

These partners will provide BDS services at reasonable fees to SMEs in the sectors of agriculture, aquaculture, processed foods, loom weaving, gift, toys and housewares, and tourism.

Among the available services are basic livelihood trainings, bookkeeping and accounting, business planning, cooperatives development, culinary arts and food services, financial statement preparation, food safety, motivational training and teambuilding, organic agriculture, processed food product development, and solid waste management.

SMEDSEP, a technical cooperation project between the Philippines and Germany implemented in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry, is also known as the Private Sector Promotion Program. Its Business Development Services component develops fee-based BDS offered by private institutions to meet the demand for these services in a more adequate and sustainable way.*NLG

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