Canada is seeking to make it easier for its companies to invest in the Philippines’s construction sector and help empower local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME).
In his bilateral talk with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summits in Cambodia, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he wants to accelerate the process for “Canadian investors to be building in the Philippines.”
Trudeau said Canada is also ready to support local MSMEs particularly those owned by women.
Marcos lauded the proposal to help MSMEs recover from the effects of the pandemic and boost their competitiveness since it is aligned with the government’s priorities.
He noted that the government is prioritizing MSMEs since they make up over 90 percent of the country’s businesses.
“And so that’s what we’ve been trying to do— is to try to support them (MSME), as it has a very large multiplier effect,” Marcos said.
During his talk with the Filipino community in Cambodia last Sunday, Marcos said many of the companies, which were forced to shut down due the business disruptions caused by Covid-19 were MSMEs.
“That is now the job of the Marcos administration. To bring back all those, which shutdown [their operations],” Marcos said in Filipino.
Image credits: Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP