This is the second post in a three-part series on SMEs.
In an earlier post, I discussed another area of development – SMEs – that is both important for creating sustained growth, and has recently attracted interest from investors. The Philippines is also placing a lot of emphasis on this area of development.
The Philippines is actually in good shape regarding SMEs, as it has an abundant labor pool. The country has 800,000 registered businesses, of which ~7% are classified as either small (10-99 employees, $60K to $300K in assets) or medium (100-199 employees, $300K to $2M in assets). Only 0.4% of the business earn above the $2M mark. The remaining 92% are microenterprises, which have between 1 and 9 employees and earn less than $60K in assets. These MSMEs (including microenterprises) account for 70% of the labor force and 30% of the output of the country.