Palace says Trudeau vowed to aid Pinoy MSMEs

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to assist Filipino micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in improving their businesses, Malacañang said on Monday.

In his bilateral talk with President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Sunday on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, Trudeau said he wants strong partnership with the Philippines to make it easier for Canadian infrastructure builders to secure projects in the country.

"There’s a number of things that we can do to make it easier for Canadian investors to be building in the Philippines. We should make sure we’re accelerating our work so that we can be much more active partners on that,” Trudeau was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Office of the Press Secretary on Monday.

“And there’s also a lot that we can do on small and medium size businesses, particularly women-owned and run, which is an area of tremendous growth and strength in the Philippine economy to see women succeed," Trudeau added.

Trudeau said Canada has a number of programs and that its government would be happy to work with the Philippines for the benefit of the economy.

For his part, Marcos welcomed Trudeau’s offer, stressing one of the thrusts of his administration is to assist the MSMEs in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They are 99.8 percent of our businesses, our MSMEs. They are 62, 63 percent of our employment. [They] are employed in MSMEs. And it took a big hit in the pandemic,” Marcos said.

“And so that’s what we’ve been trying to do -- is to try to support them, and it has a very large multiplier effect,” he added. — Anna Felicia Bajo/RSJ, GMA Integrated News