Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Planters Development Bank joins former Philippine president Corazon C. Aquino in rallying popular support behind PinoyME, a movement to alleviate poverty and improve the quality of people’s lives through micro enterprise development.
PinoyMe aims to mobilize micro credit and support services to ensure meaningful and sustainable integration of the working and entrepreneurial poor into the mainstream economy. Its immediate goal dubbed “5-5-5″ will tap microfinance institutions (MFIs) and provide financial and related services to 5 million clients in impoverished communities and to raise P5-Billion in capital over a 5-year period. Planters Development Bank, the leading privately-owned provider of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) finance in the country, is one of the business sector partners of the PinoyME consortium. The consortium brings together the country’s top corporations, the microfinance institutions, social development foundations and the academic community.
PinoyME marked its first anniversary on January 22 in Ortigas Center in Pasig City. The anniversary celebration coincided with the official launch of the movement The highlight of the anniversary celebration was the former Philippine president Aquino’s keynote message. Mrs. Aquino cited poverty and inequity as principal threats to the country’s democracy, as she called on the private sector to bring “people power”to a higher level with the launch of PinoyME projects that will develop the entrepreneurial skills of low-income Filipinos.