The Development Academy of the Philippines, through its Productivity  Development Center, is conducting a nationwide survey entitled, “The Impact of Covid 19 to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).” Its run started on 28 June and will end  on 14 July 2021.  

The study is a joint initiative between the Asian Productivity Organization (APO)  and Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). This study is being conducted  simultaneously in ten National Productivity Organizations (NPOs) of the APO member  countries which include Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia,  Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, and Vietnam.  

The result of the survey will be used to determine the impact of Covid-19 on  SMEs in APO member countries. It targets to publish a report that could assist member  countries in planning for effective strategies to help SMEs recover from the pandemic  and serve as evidence to guide the Asian Development Bank and policymakers to  explore possible assistance to SMEs affected by the pandemic. 

The survey instrument, that is composed of 38 questions, is accessible on a  cloud-based platform. It is user-friendly and will only take 10-15 minutes to accomplish.  The DAP targets to collect 300-400 completed responses.  

The ADBI developed the study to address the concern on the kind of interventions  given by different jurisdictions to their SMEs during the pandemic. They noticed that  supports are often homogenous and that SMEs are being treated equally even if they  have particular needs. This observation is contrary to the hypothesis that a differentiated  approach would work better to support SME than the one-size-fits-all approach. The  aforesaid inquiry led to the development of this study. In 2020, the first round of the survey  was conducted with the participation of eight (8) countries. Because of the initiative of  the ADBI, the Philippines was motivated to participate in the study. Thus, the DAP, as the  NPO for the Philippines, committed to implement the nationwide SMEs survey.