New export plan to focus on EU, Asian markets

The announced review and revision of the Export Development Plan of 1999 will focus more on rapid changes in the international market than on domestic strategies.

The clarification has been issued by Philippine exporters Confederation president Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. in the wake of inquiries as to what parts of the present export plan will have to be changed.

Interest on what may ail the export industry has urged following recent reports that export growth slowed down to a single digit level for the whole of last year from a record-breaking phase of close to 20 percent a year from 1992 to 1999.

Ortiz-Luis explained that the export plan covers the years 1999 to 2001 and needs to be updated and adjusted before the end of this year as mandated by the Export Development Act.

"The industry clustering concept which is the plan’s point of departure from the previous one, remains sound. In fact, it is now being aggressively promoted by the private sector in tandem with regional directors of the Department of Trade and Industry all over the country," the export leader pointed out.

This means that the clustering strategy has moved beyond the piloting stage where key industries were assigned to selected regions, like farm-based industries in Mindanao, furniture in Cebu, electronics in the Calabarzon region and Information Technology in Metro-Manila.

Ortiz-Luis said the primary concern in adjusting the 1999 plan is the less than bright prospects for higher growth of our exports to our two biggest trading partners, the United States and Japan. A slowdown in the American economy has taken its toll on the electronics industry for the second half of last year.

The best that the country expects from the US and Japanese markets is for present levels of export to those countries to be sustained this year and the next.

On the other hand, the expected recovery of Japan from a lingering recession has not materialized. This, coupled with weathermen’s forecast that the drought-inducing El Niño phenomenon will hit the Philippines again this year, has prompted export industry leaders to review old assumptions and adopt new marketing strategies.

Expected to be explored in the new plan are ways to expand markets in the European Community, the expanding Asian markets including Australia and New Zealand and the Middle East to compensate for the expected flat growth in the US and Japanese market. – Philexport News & Features