Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
During the webinar-press event, hosted by (upper left) Sam YG, learning boards were presented by SM tenant-partners fashion designer Patty Ang of Patton and young e-commerce entrepreneur Jerald Sze of Straightfoward. Giving words of advice to start-ups were (from left, middle) Department of Trade and Industry Assistant Secretary Mary Jean Pacheco, SM Supermalls President Steven Tan and BDO Network Bank Senior Vice President and MSME business head Karen Cua. To detail the assistance that start-ups can expect from SM are (from lower left) SM Supermalls Leasing Strategy and Operations Assistant Vice President Gina Katigbak, BDO FVP Merchant Partnerships Retail Sales head Bob Tolentino and SM Supermalls Vice President for Corporate Marketing Grace Magno. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
IT has been almost two years since the pandemic brought Filipino life and many livelihoods to a screeching halt. According to a 2020 Asian Development Bank (ADB) study of 1,804 Philippine MSMEs or micro, small and medium enterprises, 70.6 percent were forced to temporarily close with 66.2 percent reported to have temporary staff cuts during the height of the Covid-19 outbreak.