A growing number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) have reinvented themselves and have evolved into successful entrepreneurs, the labour department said.
According to Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz, a growing number of former overseas Filipino wage earners have cast their lot at becoming entrepreneurs as evidenced by figures on the government’s reintegration programme for OFWs.
Dimapilis-Baldoz said that the first quarter of the year marked an increased number of OFWs who availed themselves of the two billion pesos (Dh177.87 million) reintegration programme provided by the government to jumpstart their chosen livelihood projects and entrepreneurial undertakings.
“At the start of the year, more OFWs continue to benefit from the government’s efforts of facilitating the smooth reintegration of returning OFWs through favourable terms of increased investment and productivity, thus making them productive upon their return,” Baldoz said
Under the Peso 2 billion OFW National Reintegration Programme, OFWs are provided loans that they can use as seed money to start up their own business.
“Starting strong in 2013, the intensified reintegration programme turns more returning OFWs into entrepreneurs; start-ups generate 2,995 jobs,” Dimapilis-Baldoz said.
“At the start of the year, more OFWs continue to benefit from the government’s efforts of facilitating the smooth reintegration of returning OFWs through favourable terms of increased investment and productivity, thus making them productive upon their return,” the official said.
