DAMMAM, 11 October 2005 — Small and medium enterprise (SME) Filipino businesswomen who visited the Kingdom recently said they could see increasing business ties with their Saudi counterparts.
Speaking through Ma. Veronica Elaine Carandang, vice chair on international relations in the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the visitors expressed an optimistic view after meeting with Saudi businesswomen here in the Eastern Province last week.
Carandang’s group was in the Kingdom as part of a business delegation of the Philippine-Saudi Joint Council Meeting in Riyadh.
“It’s very different when we ladies discuss things. It is more easier and faster to make decisions,” said Carandang, noting the difficulty in promoting ladies products to male businessmen.
She noted what the head of their counterpart told them that there is a big market for Philippine exports in accessories, jewelry, garments and beauty products.
Also as chair of the Grupo Filipino producers, a grouping which include pharmaceutical, realty, telecom, and other businesses, Carandang said that they will concentrate first on products needed by women and their children.
“There is a wide array of products needed by them particularly in the food sector, garments, beauty products and even in manpower,” she said.
According to her, one member in the Saudi panel was a doctor who wants to turn her building into a medical center.
“She needs nurses and other medical staff immediately,” Carandang said.
Another one is also putting up a big shopping center with beauty salons, and shops selling garments, accessories, and household items, she said.
Two of their counterparts are in the interior design business and are interested to explore the supply of wall arts, throw pillows, and home decors.
But Carandang she was more interested on the wedding planning business proposed by one Saudi businesswoman.
“It will be a big help for us to cooperate with their wedding planners because they will need tailors, couturiers, dressmakers, and other workers who will serve in the wedding,” she said, citing that it carries with the supply of all materials that go with this wedding planning business.
“They just need everything that comes from the Philippines and also from the Asian regions,” she added.
The businesswomen in the Philippines will open up more SMEs to produce and cater the products needed by their counterparts here.
In the past two months, Saudi women have been allowed by the Saudi Chamber of Commerce and Industries to put up their own businesses. They are being encouraged to come up with their own small-medium enterprises in their own homes, Carandang noted.
“This is really going to be a big opportunity and a real good beginning for both sides. Both parties are focused and excited in getting things started right away,” she said
The Philippine delegation is expected to come back in the next three months to bring all the wares that can be produced in the Philippines and which can be sold in the Kingdom. “They are willing to be our distributors in the region,” Carandang said.
