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Senator Edgardo J. Angara encouraged owners of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to utilize information and communications technologies (ICT) like the Internet and smartphones to expand their businesses.

Angara, Chair of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, made his statement following the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) launch of programs focused on growing MSME's in the country.

The DTI recently held the First Otop (One Town, One Product) National Expo and is also conducting the MSME caravan to provide assistance to MSME's in selected provinces. The Trade Department will also ante up promotion of the Small Business Corp.'s (SBC) risk-based lending approach for small businesses.

"DTI is providing crucial support to small companies given that 99.6 percent of all registered business in the Philippines are MSME's. Entrepreneurs should capitalized on the opportunities available to them like integrating high-speed ICT connectivity into their operations, "said the veteran lawmaker.

He noted that according to the Global SME Survey conducted this year by the McKinsey Global Institute, small and medium businesses that extensively use Web technologies grow and export twice as much as their competitors who do not use the web.

The report also pointed out that 75 percent of the economic impact of Internet arises from industries that do not identify themselves as pure Internet players.

"E-commerce opens a new realm of market possibilities for our MSME's. The government should ensure that they can tap the Web easily and securely" said Angara, Chair of the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) and author of the triad of ICT measures in the Senate, namely the Cybercrime Prevention Act, Data Privacy Act and the Creation of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).