Through the years, there has been so much talk about the role of micro, small, and medium scale enterprises (mSMEs) in pushing economic growth in various levels, starting at the community level.

In their advertisements, banks tout themselves as the generous, friendly, easy-to-talk-to partners of entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs. The advertisements glowingly talk of happy and profitable partnerships as photos show banking types in neckties embracing the shoulders of farmer types in buri hats. Local governments proclaim, in huge billboards among others, that they are a business-friendly place and will give the entrepreneur the royal treatment so that he will set up shop in the locality. Then there are the regular, multi-sectoral business summits and conferences at various levels, all ending with a covenant to support the entrepreneur. There is even a law, not too well known, specific to the development of the sector, RA 9501, commonly known as the magna carta for mSMEs.

But the gulf between the lip service and the hard reality remains. For example, the budding entrepreneur has to face an often forbidding local bureaucracy in such matters as business permits, sanitation and safety clearances, and the like. These are necessary of course but the paper work and the convoluted, multi-step HROUGH the years, there has been so much talk about the role of micro, small, and medium scale enterprises (mSMEs) in pushing economic growth in various levels, starting at the community level.

In their advertisements, banks tout themselves as the generous, friendly, easy-to-talk-to partners of entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs. The advertisements glowingly talk of happy and profitable partnerships as photos show banking types in neckties embracing the shoulders of farmer types in buri hats. Local governments proclaim, in huge billboards among others, that they are a business-friendly place and will give the entrepreneur the royal treatment so that he will set up shop in the locality. Then there are the regular, multi-sectoral business summits and conferences at various levels, all ending with a covenant to support the entrepreneur. There is even a law, not too well known, specific to the development of the sector, RA 9501, commonly known as the magna carta for mSMEs.

But the gulf between the lip service and the hard reality remains. For example, the budding entrepreneur has to face an often forbidding local bureaucracy in such matters as business permits, sanitation and safety clearances, and the like. These are necessary of course but the paper work and the convoluted, multi-step