DHL is bringing its GoTrade initiative closer to small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the Philippines as the growth of digital commerce and shifting supply chains open up opportunities for smaller businesses to reach international markets.
The Philippines hosted the fifth GoTrade Summit earlier this week, the second time the event has been held outside Germany, highlighting DHL’s push to bring the program closer to markets with strong export potential.
DHL Express Asia Pacific CEO Ken Lee said the company recognized that the initiative would be more effective if it reached businesses in their home markets.
“It would be more effective if we move out of Germany to reach out to the global markets,” Lee said.
The Philippines is a key market for the initiative, with MSMEs accounting for 99.6% of businesses nationwide. DHL is opening between 900 and 1,000 MSME accounts annually, with demand coming from the retail, fashion, consumer products and e-commerce sectors.
GoTrade aims to address four major barriers to international trade for small businesses: financing, skills and knowledge, digitalization, and logistics.
“We capacitate entrepreneurs and enable them to trade cross-border,” said Sarah Meinert, head of GoTrade at DHL Group.
She said DHL is also building partnerships to help address challenges that logistics services alone cannot resolve, particularly access to financing and other solutions needed to support export growth.
“You have to eventually have the financing right,” Meinert said, stressing the need for a broader support system to help smaller businesses compete in international markets.
In the Philippines, DHL has partnered with the Department of Trade and Industry to conduct seminars and webinars, reaching more than 150 SMEs this year.
Meinert said GoTrade is focusing on export-ready SMEs, including businesses in retail, handicrafts and coconut products, and encouraging them to take the next step toward international expansion.
“We are trying to really encourage them with our trainings and also partnerships to actually do the next step,” she said. “We are the enabler with GoTrade, then the SMEs need to execute.”
Globally, GoTrade has trained more than 10,000 SMEs across 45 countries this year, as DHL seeks to help smaller businesses overcome barriers to cross-border trade.
