Iloilo is growing. Now let us build Ilonggo companies.

By Janvie Soqueña Amido

Iloilo is growing. That is no longer in question. We see it around us: new buildings, expanding commercial areas, national brands entering the market, a growing BPO industry, and restaurants, cafés, and businesses opening across the city. The numbers reinforce what we see. Iloilo City has become a ₱171-billion economy, with thousands of establishments operating across the city. These are achievements worth celebrating.

But perhaps the more important question now is not whether Iloilo is growing. It is this: How much of that growth is creating Ilonggo businesses capable of growing beyond Iloilo?

Entrepreneurship is certainly alive here. Everywhere we look, somebody is building something. A food business opens, an online seller formalizes operations, a young entrepreneur launches a startup, or a family expands an existing enterprise. Government agencies conduct MSME programs, universities establish incubators, banks introduce financing products, and business organizations organize summits and mentoring sessions.

We clearly do not lack entrepreneurial activity. What we need to understand better is what happens after the business starts.

How many microenterprises become small businesses? How many small businesses become medium-sized companies? How many Iloilo companies expand outside Western Visayas? How many Ilonggo brands are sold nationally? How many manufacturers export? How many technology companies headquartered here serve customers overseas?

We have success stories, certainly. But considering the size of our economy, the strength of our universities and the entrepreneurial character of Ilonggos, shouldn’t we have many more?

Perhaps Iloilo does not have an entrepreneurship problem. Perhaps we have a scaling problem.

We have become very good at celebrating beginnings. We count registrations, training participants, beneficiaries, and startups incubated. These numbers are useful, but they don’t tell the whole story. What happens three or five years later? How many survived? How many increased their revenues? How many created more jobs?

If an entrepreneur wanted to grow and couldn’t, we should understand what stopped the business. Was it financing? Markets? Technology? Management? Regulation? Talent?

This is why Iloilo should consider publishing an annual State of Entrepreneurship Scorecard. Tell us how many businesses opened and how many closed. Tell us their survival rates. Show us how many microenterprises became small businesses, how many small businesses became medium enterprises, how much financing reached MSMEs, how many businesses began exporting, and how many jobs were created.

And when businesses fail, tell us why.

Failure is useful information. If many entrepreneurs are failing because of the same obstacle, the problem may no longer be the entrepreneur. Something in the ecosystem may need fixing.

Training, mentoring, financial literacy and digitalization all matter. But sometimes an entrepreneur does not need another seminar. Sometimes an entrepreneur needs a customer.

A food producer can attend workshops on packaging and branding, but if she cannot enter supermarkets, hotels or institutional supply chains, her business may remain small. A manufacturer can improve his products, but if major establishments operating in Iloilo source most of what they need elsewhere, where does he grow? A startup can win pitch competitions, but eventually somebody must become a paying customer.

Government offices, universities, hospitals, hotels, malls, BPO companies, property developers and large corporations collectively purchase enormous amounts of goods and services every year. How much of that procurement goes to qualified Iloilo businesses?

Perhaps that should become another number we measure.

Not because local businesses deserve special treatment simply for being local, but because developing competitive local suppliers strengthens our economy. Imagine what hundreds of millions of pesos in additional institutional procurement could do if more of that money flowed through Ilonggo enterprises.

Perhaps our MSME conversation needs to move from simply training entrepreneurs to transacting with entrepreneurs.

Then there is money.

Anyone who has operated a business knows that cash flow can kill an otherwise good company. Imagine a successful small business needing ₱5 million to buy equipment or ₱10 million to expand. A microfinance loan may no longer be appropriate. A venture capitalist may not be interested. A commercial bank may require collateral the entrepreneur does not have.

So the business stays small.

This is why Iloilo should talk seriously about growth capital, not only financial inclusion. We need financing designed for enterprises that have proven themselves and are ready to move from small to medium scale.

Perhaps Iloilo should explore a Scale-Up Fund involving government, banks, cooperatives, corporations and private investors. Its purpose would be simple: identify promising local businesses and give them access to the capital necessary for their next stage of growth.

Our universities should also be part of this conversation. Iloilo possesses an extraordinary concentration of respected educational institutions producing thousands of graduates and significant research every year. We rightly celebrate board topnotchers and academic achievements, but perhaps there is another question worth asking:

How many companies came out of our universities this year?

How many research projects became commercial products? How many technologies reached the market? How many students graduated already employing other people?

I would love to see the day when we celebrate an Iloilo university not only because one of its graduates topped a national examination, but because a company born on its campus employed hundreds of Ilonggos and started exporting technology.

Why shouldn’t that happen here?

Iloilo also does not lack entrepreneurship programs. DTI has programs. DOST has programs. The city and provincial governments have initiatives. Universities operate incubators. Banks offer SME products. Business organizations conduct programs.

The bigger question is whether these efforts connect.

If I am an entrepreneur starting today, who helps me move from registration to financing, product development, market access, expansion and eventually export? Who notices when my five-person company is ready to become a fifty-person company?

An ecosystem is not created simply because many organizations are doing good things in the same place. An ecosystem exists when those things connect.

Iloilo City and Iloilo Province should increasingly think about entrepreneurship as one economic ecosystem despite being separate political jurisdictions. Businesses do not care much about political boundaries. An entrepreneur in Pavia sells to customers in Iloilo City. A company in Mandurriao employs people from Oton or Santa Barbara. Capital, workers, customers and ideas move across these boundaries every day.

We also need to ask what Iloilo wants to become exceptionally good at. Food innovation? Agritech? Fisheries technology? Healthcare? Creative industries? Tourism? Digital services? Coffee? Social enterprise?

We cannot dominate everything.

Successful regional economies develop expertise around a few industries. Universities build knowledge around them. Investors understand them. Suppliers emerge. Workers develop specialized skills. Successful entrepreneurs become investors and mentors. Eventually, employees leave successful companies and establish companies of their own.

That is when an ecosystem begins sustaining itself.

I believe Iloilo will continue growing. More buildings will rise, more national brands will arrive and more investors will come. We should welcome them. Outside investment remains important.

But attracting investors should only be half of our ambition. We should be creating investors ourselves.

Imagine Iloilo twenty years from now. Our economy is much larger, the skyline more impressive, and almost every major national and international brand has a presence here.

But what if very few of those companies belong to Ilonggos?

Would that be enough?

There is a difference between economic activity happening in Iloilo and wealth being created and owned in Iloilo.

We need national companies entering our market, but we should also build Ilonggo companies capable of entering theirs. We need good jobs, but we also need people creating those jobs. We need MSMEs, certainly, but some of today’s MSMEs should eventually stop being MSMEs.

These are not merely business questions. They are questions about jobs, wages, opportunity and who will ultimately own the wealth created by Iloilo’s progress.

Iloilo has already proven that it can grow. Now we have to prove that we can build.

So the next time we hear about another thousand business registrations, another entrepreneurship summit, another startup program or another major investment, we should celebrate.

But after the applause, perhaps we should ask one more question: How many great Ilonggo companies are we actually building? Because that should not merely be a business agenda.

It should be an Ilonggo agenda.

Reach the writer through email at itsjanvie@gmail.com.