THE Philippine Franchise Association (PFA) said limited government support for small businesses seeking to participate in international trade shows is one of the challenges for micro-, small- and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) planning to go international.
Asked whether he sees more brands going international, PFA President Chris Lim said: “Definitely. This is why we’re investing so much money, time and effort into running this because some of them might go international five years from now.”
“This year we were able to go to Singapore but we still had limited funding. In the coming years we want to join a lot of these franchise shows internationally and bring our delegations there,” he told reporters.
He said the governments of South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand provide ample support for trade show participation.
“A lot of that is heavily government subsidized which makes it easier for MSMEs to enter the shows,” he added.
“We want to work more with the government to be able to support this because they know if they support us, we are going to be exporting entire brands, not just one or two SKUs (stock keeping units),” he said.
“That is something we’d love to work with the government on, in terms of getting that funding to go to some of these new markets,” he added.
He said that PFA has engaged the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and trade attaches overseas regarding the help the industry needs but noted that funding remains “the missing piece.”
“At the end of the day, you do just need plain and simple funding to be able to attend some of these shows to really make an impact,” he added. — Justine Irish D. Tabile
