Press Release
February 14, 2013

Cayetano to government: Increase SMEs' access to capital

Senate minority leader Alan Cayetano urged the government to enact measures increasing the access of small and medium enterprises' (SMEs) to capital.

The senator came up with this suggestion as he listened to the needs of vendors he met during his visits to various market places as part of his listening tour for his advocacy of increasing PiTiK: Presyo, Trabaho, Kita in the country.

He lamented how the ordinary Filipino is currently unable to feel the government's much-touted 6.6 percent economic growth.

"If we are truly growing then this should trickle down to the people in terms of lower prices of commodities, increase in number of jobs, and higher wages for all Filipinos. Growth should be felt by all," he said.

The minority leader said that according to the market vendors, so much of their income is lost due to high interest rates given by "5-6" operators.

"These people turn to 5-6 operators because they have no means of funding their businesses otherwise. So they get charged an interest of 20 percent instead of just a standard affordable interest of, say 6 percent," he said.

"People should feel the 6.6 percent growth and not have to resort to '5-6' just to make ends meet," he added.

Cayetano said that the establishment of more cooperatives could help end this and consequently provide more capital for all those in it -lender and debtor alike.

"It's simple: Good payback means good business all around. Instead of people spending so much of their income paying debts, they could instead borrow from the cooperative with less interest. Their interest in turn could help fund the businesses of other cooperative members," he said.

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