March 2021 – Following the shift towards digitalization, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder, Joey Concepcion, announced that Go Negosyo will launch its Agri Marketplace Digitalization Program in partnership with the Department of Agriculture and Lazada Philippines. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed last March 16, 2021 in formalizing this partnership; signatories include Joey Concepcion, William Dar, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Ray Alimurung, CEO of Lazada Philippines, Ginggay Hontiveros-Malvar, Go Negosyo Senior Adviser for Agripreneurship and Mindanao Programs Head and Cyril Alfred Castro, Head of Government Affairs of Lazada Philippines. 

“One thing this pandemic has done for many entrepreneurs is embrace digitalization and that has created a lot of opportunities for many of our aspiring and existing entrepreneurs. Back in 2019, we have been aggressive in encouraging our MSMEs to utilize how digitalization can jumpstart their business. That added value back in 2019 is already reaping its rewards especially with our situation with the pandemic,” Concepcion forwarded.

“As a testament of how important digital transformation is for MSMEs, we even launched the SIGN UP Summit last 2019 where we educated our MSMEs on the range of technology innovation that they can access for their business. That same year, we created the Digital Alliance which Lazada is a part of,” Concepcion added.

Go Negosyo’s Agri Marketplace Digitalization Program is an inclusive business program which aims to nurture and develop the agribusinesses in the Philippines. This program seeks to expand the market reach of farmer associations’, cooperatives’, or agribusiness products through partnership with online market platforms. At the end of the program, the selected agricultural cooperatives, associations, and agribusiness will be able to successfully market its farm produce or products via partner online market platforms. Go Negosyo believes that through participating in the digitalization program, farmer association’s, cooperative’s or agribusiness will be able to scale up and maximize its potential.

“This is very timely, we can now take this opportunity to take the power of digital agriculture, the digital e-commerce, for the benefit of everyone. Digitalization has been accelerated, and now, we have embraced totally the power of digital agriculture to jumpstart and transform Philippine agriculture,” Sec. Dar noted.

With this partnership, agri-preneurs will have access to Lazada’s resources and network which will enable them to learn the ropes of eCommerce—utilizing the platform’s resources and wide network to grow their businesses on a digital scale.

“We are excited to collaborate with Go Negosyo on this initiative as agriculture is an important part of the Philippines’ economy. Supporting small businesses to digitalize and helping them scale their growth online is at the core of what we do at Lazada. We hope that this will encourage agri-preneurs to take the first step and inspire more peers to join in this digital transformation that can tap on our platform’s consumer base,” Alimurung, Lazada Philippines CEO, said.

The program is expected to launch by April benefiting a total of 127,226 members across cooperatives and associations.

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