The Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia and has been one of the most dynamic economies in the East Asia Pacific region. With increasing urbanization, a growing middle class, and a large and young population, the Philippines’ economic dynamism is rooted in strong consumer demand supported by a vibrant labor market and robust remittances. Business activities are buoyant with notable performance in the services sector including business process outsourcing, real estate, tourism, and finance and insurance industries. The Philippine economy has also made progress in delivering inclusive growth, evidenced by a decline in poverty rates and its Gini coefficient. Poverty declined from 23.3% in 2015 to 16.6% in 2018 while the Gini coefficient declined from 44.9 to 42.7 over the same period. (Worldbank, 2022)

Our SME Program 

As of 2020, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recorded a total of 957,620 business enterprises operating in the country. Of these, 952,969 (99.51%) are MSMEs and 4,651 (0.49%) are large enterprises. Micro enterprises constitute 88.77% (850,127) of total MSME establishments, followed by small enterprises at 10.25% (98,126) and medium enterprises at 0.49% (4,716).

The top five (5) industry sectors according to the number of MSMEs in 2020 were: (1) Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles (445,386); (2) Accommodation and Food Service Activities (134,046); (3) Manufacturing (110,916); (4) Other Service Activities (62,376); and (5) Financial and Insurance Activities (45,558). These industries accounted for about 83.77% of the total number of MSME establishments.

Together, these MSMEs generated a total of 5,380,815 jobs or 62.66% of the country’s total employment. The micro enterprises produced the biggest share (29.38%) closely followed by small enterprises (25.78%) while medium enterprises were far behind at 7.50%. Meanwhile, large enterprises generated a total of 3,206,011 jobs or 37.34% of the country’s overall employment.

Also, MSMEs account for 25% of the country’s total exports revenue. It is also estimated that 60% of all exporters in the country belong to the MSME category. MSMEs are able to contribute in exports through subcontracting arrangement with large firms, or as suppliers to exporting companies.