Villar says 4TH OFW and Family Summit focuses on Agribusiness

CITING the need for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to gain new entrepreneurial skills, Senator Cynthia A. Villar said yesterday's 4th OFW and Family Summit held at the World Trade Center in Pasay City focused on agribusiness.

The summit, attended by hundreds of OFWs and their family members, was organized by the senator's Villar Sipag (Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance) and GoNegosyo.

 Villar expressed hope the participants in the one-day summit were able to gain knowledge and enrich their know-how on starting their own business.

"This was a very inspiring and productive event for our Filipino migrant workers and their family because they were afforded knowledge and information on entrepreneurship so they can put up their own business. They were taught on how to intelligently invest their hard-earned money from working overseas," said Villar.

Villar, chair of the Senate Agriculture and Food committee, noted they opted to delve on agribusiness because of its extensive potential to spur economic growth and employment. It will also help in poverty alleviation. She also sees agribusiness as a boost to food security by addressing the escalating food prices.

"Agribusiness can be an option for OFWs who will decide to stay in the country for good, particularly those whose status cannot be legalized, and will decide to return to their respective provinces and start their own businesses," said Villar.

"We want OFWs and their family to have an entrepreneurial mindset for them to invest their earnings or the remittances they get into profitable endeavor," she added.

The speakers on agri-business opportunities and their topics were the following: Rep. Rico Geron, livestock; Engr. Nilo Cordero, fish farming; Brian Amante Belen, fruit trees, agri-tourism and farming; Ronald Costales, vegetable and organic farming and agri-tourism; Antonio Alleje, dairy farming; Tina Papillon, farming; Rita Macabuhay (Meralco Farm Institute) farming and Prince Rainier Domingo of 4H Club.

Former OFWs also shared their 'experiences' on how they became successful entrepreneurs.

Amado Bartolome, chairman of the Association of Filipino Franchisers. Inc. and GoNegosyo Angelpreneur talked on franchising. Bernie Mercado of Stemtech Phils., Joey Sarmiento of Direct Selling Association of the Philippines and Tommany Tan of Fern C spoke on direct selling.

 Ms. Toots Ople, head of the Blas Ople Center and Training Institute gave the participants an overview on avoiding human trafficking and illegal recruitment.

To help ensure that OFWs and their family will not fall victims to scam artists, lawyer Armand Bengco of the NBI Anti Crime Division discussed the modus operandi employed in business scams.

British Ambassador Asif Ahmad, British Deputy Head of Mission Trevor Lewis and Joey Concepcion gave the welcome remarks while former Senate President Manny Villar and Sen. Cynthia A. Villar gave the inspiration message and closing remarks, respectively.

Aside from the knowledge acquired in the summit, lucky participants also took home the prizes in the raffle draw... a Camella House & Lot for the first prize winner. One winner got a motorcycle from Kservico while 2 winners got Kettle Korn business karts. There were 10 winners for the Sari-Sari Store/Pangkabuhayan packages from All Day Convenience Store.

The minor prizes were scholarship certificates from Informatics consisting of 100 scholarship certificates for Call Center Training Course and 35 scholarship certificates for special training courses on PC Troubleshooting and Photoshop Designing.

There were also 10 winners in the Pangkabuhayan appliances from SAVERS and cellphones from SMART. Filway Marketing also gave away special educational packages (books) for the children of OFWs.