Subic Program to Help Displaced Workers

SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza said that workers who lost their jobs at the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales will soon become entrepreneurs courtesy of a program supported by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE).

The program would initially benefit 200 former workers in the freeport who want to venture into small business enterprises, particularly those related to the tourism industry.

Under a memorandum of understanding recently signed by SBMA and PCE officials, the displaced workers would be asked to undergo a "Go Negosyo" seminar series to prepare them for their business ventures.

The program will help all the displaced workers to become employers and create more workers.

In the same statement, Jose Ma. Concepcion III, PCE founding trustee and president and chief executive officer of RFM Corp., said the SBMA’s move to make businessmen out of displaced workers is a step in the right direction.

Arreza and Concepcion said the training is essential to motivate Filipinos to think business, become working entrepreneurs and create jobs.

The PCE, according to the Go Negosyo website, is a nonstock and nonprofit organization that aims to make the Philippines a thriving entrepreneurial nation. [via Inquirer.net]