Bolos said he believes this group can help arm OFWs with skills in enterprise development by giving training and business development services.
This can gradually address the failure of many enterprises run by returning migrant workers whose businesses are part of their reintegration into the country, he added.
Likewise, the blueprint for the OFW Chamber of Commerce includes determining local markets for Filipinos still working abroad.
An example of such is Donsols Motor Works, based in Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental and owned by 16-year Saudi Arabia-based contract worker Vivencia Ellorina.
The enterprise assembles and manufactures passenger jeepneys, and has produced some 800 total jeepney units for clients based in Cagayan de Oro City and the provinces of Cebu, Negros Occidental, Bukidnon, and Misamis Oriental.
Most of Donsols Motor Works clients are seafarers and overseas performing artists, a brochure cited.
Another example is Davids Well Crafts & More, based in Bauang, La Union and owned by Lowell and Eden de Castro Villa. They sell home dcor services like topiaries (shrub trimming), wreaths, swags (curtain window treatments that can be hung on a rod or attached to a mounting board), candle holders, wooden clocks, among others, and markets those to four branches of SM Department Store and at a provincial trade center.
Since their products and services are considered niche, the De Castro Valle couple also put up a store for photocopying services and sells school and office supplies.
Lowell told the OFWJC that sans a chamber of commerce, they put up their business relying on each other.
I design, my husband is in charge of production, Eden added.
She said an organization of OFWs-turned-entrepreneurs could help since one of the biggest challenges they faced in growing their business was penetrating the mainstream market.
If we did not manage to enter the SM malls system, we wouldnt have a market, De Castro Villa added.
Bolos said a chamber of commerce could also be instrumental in giving OFWs a chance to buy public utility firms like water and power distribution, especially in provinces.
There are public utilities owned by the government that can be sold to overseas Filipinos, Bolos said.
These, he added, could be safely farmed out to a business organization of overseas Filipinos.
Owing to being migrant workers in the past, an OFW chamber of commerce can lead to mutual business benefits for them, Bolos said. OFW Journalism Consortium
Pinoy Life Abroad
