OWWA opens Biz Plan Competition for Filipino seafarers

CEBU CITY, July 19 (PIA) -- A  new opportunity awaits Filipino seafarers working abroad and who are planning to retire soon and thinking of investing their savings into business as the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) opens the 2019 NRCO-ISP Business Plan Competition for overseas workers.

The business plan competition is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between DOLE OWWA-National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO), in partnership with the Integrated Seafarers of the Philippines (ISP) and its affiliated manning agencies.

The program promotes holistic approach on reintegration preparedness among seafarers with their families.

The competition is open to active and inactive seafarers, 25 years old and above, who are interested to venture into entrepreneurship.

Work experience does not necessarily matter in joining the competition.

Also allowed to join are inactive seafarers or those who are already staying in the Philippines for not more than five years.

In the event that the seafarer is working abroad, the members of the family of the seafarer can join and apply on behalf of him, but ideas should be coming from the seafarer himself.

The competition is open for business startups as they welcome all types of businesses except franchising.

The competition has four stages with the first stage being the proposal writing that must be submitted on or before Sept. 6 to nrcoispbusinessplan@gmail.com / ro7.nrco@yahoo.com or through the OWWA Regional Welfare Office 7, 2nd Floor, DOLE-7 Building, Gen. Maxilom Ave. corner Gorordo Ave., Cebu City or contact (032) 254-3199 / 0916-317-1121.

The second stage is the screening round wherein all qualified entries will be screened down to 10 outstanding proposals which includes background checking.

In the event that there would be anyone from the list who would like to withdraw his/her entry, entries ranked 11 to 15 shall be considered to complete the ten finalists.

The announcement will be done at the last week of September 2019.

The third stage is the mentoring round where the top 10 contestants will undergo mentoring in Manila that will include one-day-one-topic about business and entrepreneurship, business planning, tax and business registrations, financial management, human resources management, marketing and sales, personality development, and other negosyo tips by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

The contestants must attend all topics, otherwise they may be subject to disqualification.

The final round is expected to happen in November 2019, where contestants are required to defend their proposals before the panel of judges.

Questions will evolve around the proposal, and announcement of winners will be done after the defense.

Criteria for judging includes content of the plan including social business idea and purpose (30 points), impact on the community (20 points), financial viability (30 points), clarity and presentation of the business plan (10 points), and drive/determination of the business plan owner-entrepreneur (10 points) for a total of 100 points.

The business plan of the year overall champion will receive P500,000 grand cash prize (to be given in three tranches), P100,000 for first runner up, and P50,000 each for the remaining finalists.

Also, there are possible grants and access to preferential business loan funding from NCRO and its partners.

After the competition, the OWWA thru NRCO monitors the progress of the business.

They will be assisted on the first few stages of putting up their business, said Dexter Flores Paro, Registered Social Worker of the NRCO, OWWA-DOLE Region 7. (jsme/PIA7-Cebu/DOLE-7)

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