The business plan competition is a Public-Private Partnership between DOLE OWWA-NRCO and Integrated Seafarers of the Philippines (ISP) and its affiliated manning agencies.
The program promotes a holistic approach to 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 soon. 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.
The competition process
In the event that the seafarer is working abroad, the members of the family of the seafarer can join and apply on his behalf but ideas should be coming from the seafarer himself.
The said competition is open for business start-ups as they welcome all types of business except franchising.
The second stage is the screening round wherein all qualified entries will be screened down to 10 outstanding proposals. This includes background checking. In the event that there would be anyone from such list who would like to withdraw his/her entry, entries ranked 11 to 15 shall be considered to complete the ten (10) finalists. The announcement will be done on the last week of September 2019.
The final round is expected to happen on November 2019, where contestants are required to defend their proposals before the panel of judges. Questions will revolve around the proposal, and the announcement of winners will be done after it.
Criteria for judging includes content of the plan including social business idea and purpose (30), impact on the community (20), financial viability (30), clarity and presentation of the business plan (10), and drive/determination of the business plan owner-entrepreneur (10)- for a total of 100 points.
The NRCO is a government agency under the supervision of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), mandated to develop, promote, and implement a national agenda on sustainable return and reintegration of OFWs.