Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), the largest corporate-led, non-profit social development foundation in the country joins the 4th Philippine Business & Entrepreneurs’ Expo (PBEX) this coming April 25-28, 2013 at the Megatrade Hall 2, 5F Building B of SM Megamall.

The biggest Business-to-Business (B2B) trade show, the event will help you broaden your network through building new business partnerships. Also a platform for SMEs to launch their products, PBEX will also feature partners in the direct selling, franchising, and dealership sectors.

Expo-goers will also learn more about the Business in Development (BiD) Challenge at PBEX as PBSP, in partnership with the BiD Network, will showcase some of the social enterprises during last year’s business plan competition. A project under PBSP’s Platform for Collective Engagements in Enterprise Development, the BiD Challenge aims to generate new and innovative business concepts that merge poverty reduction and profit.

Some claim that starting a business can be affected by several elements: economic performance and trends, consideration of rivals, and social factors like gender ratio, to name a few.

In the Philippines, women have equal opportunity as men when it comes to education, political leadership, employment, and entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurship is not only encouraged but is given needed support by the government and private groups, in fact, 51% of entrepreneurs are female.

It could be said that women entrepreneurs have indeed made their mark in the business industry. Notable female frontrunners like Cora D. Ong, founder of CDO Foodsphere, Inc., a thriving food product manufacturing company, boldly declared that “I never saw a difference between men and women. Women are very much involved now and many are very successful in their own fields.” Mariels Almeda Winhoffer, IBM Philippines’ first female country manager, came back to serve her country even after having lived in the United States for a long time. These women are just a couple of examples that prove this statement true.

Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) with employee volunteers from member company UBS recently visited Barangay Mascap in Rodriguez, Rizal to plant 157 coconut seedlings in a one hectare coconut nursery. This project, in partnership with the Ayaas-Kayrofa Farmers Associations, is one of the foundation’s efforts to support the rehabilitation of the Marikina Watershed. In photo…

The muddy trail leads one to a mountain-top village of T’nuos in Takunel, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. Mountains seem to touch the clouds in T’nuos, the high ground overlooking Lake Sebu is home to indigenous families belonging to the T’boli Tribe. Subsisting on rootcrops, vegetables, bananas, corn, and other food that abound in their mountain…

Citi Philippines recently hosted a breakfast for the beneficiaries of the Community Enterprise Assistance Project (CEAP), an enterprise development initiative that creates livelihood opportunities for urban poor households in Metro Manila.

Citi Foundation through United Way Worldwide provided the funding that organized 5 enterprise groups (3 manpower cooperatives, a water lily crafts cooperative and a wellness group) with 234 members from urban poor communities in the cities of Quezon, Navotas, Malabon, Pasig and Marikina. The Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) was tapped to manage and implement the project.