MANILA – As the saying goes, not all heroes wear capes so Filipinos are encouraged to be a hero to local entrepreneurs by buying and patronizing local products.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary and chief-of-staff Ireneo Vizmonte said Tuesday the department’s Buy Local, Go Lokal campaign will help Filipino entrepreneurs in this time of challenging business environment amid the pandemic.
Buy Local, Go Lokal is a nationwide campaign of 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.
One can be a ‘BUYani’ by shifting their consumption patterns toward buying Philippine fresh produce and manufactured goods.
With the restricted movement due to quarantine measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the DTI is promoting its online marketplace for home-grown brands called Shopinas.
Vizmonte said based on a DTI survey of 858,840 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) nationwide, 56.4 percent or 484,488 MSMEs stopped their operations during the quarantine.
Some 116,695 MSMEs or 13.6 percent of the respondents said they operated at limited capacity during the quarantine.
The rest were allowed to operate as they are part of essential industries under the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases guidelines.
In a previous statement, DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said reviving the “buy local” campaign to stimulate buying Filipino products will help in saving micro and small enterprises, as well as jobs in this sector.
For the part of the government, Lopez said the Department of Budget and Management prioritizes buying products needed for the Covid-19 response from local producers.
To recall, a number of companies repurposed their facilities to produce essential products amid the Covid-19 pandemic, such as face masks and personal protective equipment, among others. (PNA)
