ILOILO CITY — The level of consciousness on “inclusive business” (IB) practices among local entrepreneurs remains low, according to the Iloilo Business Club (IBC).

Lea E. Lara, IBC executive director, backed the earlier statement of Felicitas Agoncillo-Reyes, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) assistant secretary for Investments Promotion Group, that Iloilo businesses need to step up efforts in involving microentrepreneurs in the value chain.

“I am sure that they already practice IB principles, but only lack in scale. For you to be an inclusive business, you need to be scalable or a business model that you can replicate,” Ms. Reyes said during the IB road show in Iloilo last month organized by the Board of Investments (BoI).

Ms. Lara said while shopping malls, supermarkets, and food chains are already sourcing products and supplies from local farmers, there is a need to set up a system that will deliberately track and promote such activities.

“They’re practicing, but the level or extent of inclusivity in their operation was not consciously tracked. There was no study about the patronage of local businesses,” the IBC official said.

“That’s one of the things that we’ve been telling the city and province. That as soon as an investor sets up a business, they should be given a directory of local suppliers. Rather than they get their suppliers from Cebu or from other places. So that you could translate the economic benefit by involving the local businesses,” she added.

The IBC, for its part, engages in the promotion of native products.

“We’re partnering with the province and the Department of Agriculture in holding market matching. We try as much as possible that when dealing with investors, we network them to small businessmen,” she said.

A study titled Business+ Philippines — jointly conducted by the BoI, the DTI industry development and investments promotion arm, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development — indicated the low levels of awareness and engagement of Philippine companies in IB, but a “growing enthusiasm and interest” at the same time.

The study, released in late November 2017, surveyed 19 business executives and 223 companies.

Ms. Reyes said she met with Iloilo City Mayor Jose S. Espinosa III who expressed enthusiasm on promoting IB.

“There’s a lot of promise for Iloilo City and for the region to become an IB center. We will put principles of IB to be something to be included in the investment code to be approved by the city government,” she said. — Louine Hope Conserva

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