The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Gia Catimbang
Small and medium entrepreneurs recently converged to take part in the annual Franchise and Business Expo which supports the Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s (Asean) seven-point strategy targeting the advancement of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to fit in the core of their economic agenda.
Launched last Sept. 29 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City, The Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. (AFFI) will spearhead the Franchise and Business Expo while celebrating their 20th anniversary under the theme AFFI@20: One with ASEAN which will feature informative seminars and on-the-day mentoring sessions from experts and business owners in the industry.
The trade organization has expressed their support for MSMEs and ASEAN’s seven-point agenda dubbed as the “7Ms Towards Shared Prosperity in ASEAN,” which includes: mindset, mastery, mentoring, markets, money, machines and models as a tactical approach to small enterprise development.
“Small and medium businesses provide more jobs for the common people than any other sector in our society today,” AFFI President John Chung, who is also the founder and CEO of homegrown perfume brand, Acquasuisse, said.
He added that AFFI’s member corporations have created over 200,000 jobs as of June 2017.
“For 20 years, AFFI has been a constant champion of Filipino SMEs. The founders, who are now pillars themselves in the business and franchising community, envisioned the association to be the voice of entrepreneurs in this country,” Chung said.
“We want to continue fulfilling that vision in the coming decades,” he added.
The Franchise and Business Expo generated by the AFFI has been there to propagate and support hundreds of brands by presenting them to thousands of visitors ranging from established entrepreneurs to the consumers, he added.
With a mission to engage entrepreneurs to harness their potentials through collaborative learning and networking, AFFI commits to promote responsible micro small medium enterprise business through franchising.