Filipinos are encouraged to support local entrepreneurs in the Philippines by patronizing local products.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary and Chief-of-Staff Ireneo Vizmonte said last Tuesday, June 30 that the department’s Buy Local, Go Lokal campaign will enable Filipino entrepreneurs to try to weather the storm in this current business landscape amid the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The Buy Local, Go Lokal is a nationwide campaign of the DTI to support local industries, and part of this is the ‘BUYani’ campaign.
“We launch the BUYani promoting Filipino products,” Vizmonte said during the webinar of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines and the International Labor Organization.
You can be a ‘BUYani’ by shifting your consumption patterns toward buying Philippine fresh produce and manufactured goods.
With the limitation of movement for quarantine measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus, the DTI is promoting its online marketplace for home-grown brands called Shopinas.
Based on a DTI survey of 858,840 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) nationwide, 56.4% or 484,488 MSMEs stopped their operations during the quarantine said Vizmonte.
About 116,695 MSMEs or 13.6% of respondents said they operated at limited capacity during the quarantine whereas others operated as part of essential industries under the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases guidelines.
DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez remarked previously that reviving the “buy local” campaign to fuel the purchase of Filipino products will aid in saving micro and small enterprises as well as jobs in this sector. Further, Lopez said the Department of Budget and Management prioritizes buying the products that are needed for the COVID-19 response from local Filipino producers.
As part of the ongoing efforts to help the country recover and fight, numerous companies have repurposed their facilities to produce essential products such as face masks and personal protective equipment, among others.
