DTI to conduct more info drive on AEC

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is set to intensify its education campaign for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC) next year as part of preparations for the upcoming regional economic integration.

“We are intensifying our education campaign on the AEC through larger fora four times every month starting in the first quarter of 2014,” DTI assistant secretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo said on the sidelines of a conference on the AEC.

He said the plan is to conduct the fora by region, by sectors, and by issues.

“Alongside these fora, the DTI will continue organizing the Doing Business in Free Trade Areas (DBFTA) sessions,” he said.

The DBFTA is a series of business information sessions that provide entrepreneurs with knowledge on how to navigate and profit from the country’s free trade agreements (FTAs).

Currently, the Philippines has signed seven free trade agreements, namely, the ASEAN FTA, ASEAN-China FTA, ASEAN-Korea FTA, ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA, ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement and ASEAN-India FTA.

Since January of this year, more than 100 DBFTA sessions have been conducted nationwide, with many focused on the AEC.

The AEC, which will be in place by 2015, will transform the ASEAN into a region with free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labor as well as flow of capital.

Large market opportunities are seen to be opened by the AEC’s market of 600 million people for local industries.

This, even as DTI Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. noted that the Philippines is already exporting and importing a lot with its ASEAN neighbors.

“We should continue to expand our markets to allow firms to gain economies of scale,” he said.

In 2012, the share of ASEAN as a bloc to total Philippine trade stood at 21.1 percent.