Seeking to assist the “entrepreneurial poor”, members of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) are raising an initial P30 million ($680,000) to fund the newly-launched Educated Marginalized Entrepreneurs Resource Generation (EMERGE) program.
During the program’s formal launch on Tuesday in Makati City, MAP president Francisco del Rosario Jr said the fund’s balance will be sourced through a bank loan.
“[The fund] will be created to finance the equity requirements of proposed project or business,” Del Rosario said, noting the Emerge program has three key components which are funding, mentoring, and values formation.
It will tap leaders (active or retired) of Philippine companies, from academic background, civil society, and government who want to provide free expert assistance in business management, especially in the areas that are critical to the profitability and sustainability of the project or business.
“The goal is to achieve inclusive growth in the focus of job creation. It aims to assist the entrepreneurial poor who are high school graduates with technical or vocational training or skills, the retired government employees, families of uninformed services and the returning OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) who would like to go into projects or businesses,” Del Rosario said.
MAP identified agribusiness, tourism, infrastructure, BPO or business process outsourcing, and food and beverage as the sectors that have high potential for job generation.
MAP also said the partners-in-mission will come from major Philippine corporations, financial institutions, joint foreign chambers, Church, education, foundations, embassies, multilateral and bilateral agencies, and government agencies,
“Let us make our current economic growth as a nation trickle down to the poor by focusing on job creation,” De Rosario said. “To help eradicate poverty we need an inclusive growth program that is focused on job creation.”
