By: Business World
The Trade department’s export marketing arm is planning a P25-million program to connect small businesses to consumers in the United States through e-commerce.
The program, once scaled up, could enroll 5000 MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) to a digital platform and logistics services optimized for handling small-value shipments.
Department of Trade Industry Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) Director Senen M. Perlada said that the pilot test for the program will include 10 exporters. They will be exporting small shipments falling below the threshold for duties and taxes directly to international consumers.
The program will be a partnership with start-up company eCFulfill, which can connect Philippine businesses to digital transaction services, warehouse logistics, and online marketplaces like Amazon.
The businesses in the pilot program sell mostly food products, he said.
Mr. Perlada said the initial scale-up move will be to about 200 businesses this year.
He hopes to increase this further to 5,000 MSMEs next year, with additional funding from the government’s economic stimulus package. He said the Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy law could also fund logistics warehousing for businesses to expand to commercial shipments.
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