Export sector sets modest growth target

CEBU, Philippines - While the country's export sector posted a 28% growth in 2010, DTI-7 Regional Director Asteria Caberte said the industry sees a modest growth this year.

During the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) workshop held in Cebu recently, Caberte said exporters should exert more effort to take advantage of the domestic market potential as well as attracting the tourists visiting the country as well.

Based on the PEDP target, the export sector aims to generate at least US$89 billion by 2013. Next year, the DTI, in cooperation with private stakeholders in the export sector will introduce programs that will help the export industry thrive, and find out detailed concerns—at source.

 DTI in partnership with GIZ (German Technical Cooperation) is currently doing a study on how to effectively tap the domestic market, specifically for furntiure exporters.

This is one of the frameworks that will also be included in the PEDP 2011-2013, wherein inclusive growth in the export sector is encouraged.

This time, the export sector will grow together with tourism, services, and agricuture sectors.

“The low-lying fruit now is tourism,” Caberte said saying that if the export sector will actively partner with the tourism sector, it is one of the channels that will push growth, while main markets are not doing briskly.

According to Caberte, DTI together with GIZ will introduce several programs that help exporters to promote their products to the growing tourism market in the Philippines, including a planned partnership with the Hotel, Resort, Restaurants Association of Cebu (HRRAC), and other tourism related organizations to include export products in the promotion to tourists.

Caberte said that although the region’s merchandise export earnings increased in January to February of this year, this increase was not sustained as global demand for the region’s products softened along with the weakening of the recovery of the US and European economies.

“Exports being the most vulnerable to offshore developments, is always the first to experiecen the impact of external turmoils,” she said.

Besides electronics, the region’s other key regiuional exports include other industrial goods, steel/metal products, electrical equipment, garments, vehicles/machinery parts, furniture, other consumer goods, fashion accessories, gifts, decors and housewares, among others.

“In order to improve export performance of Central Visayas, we plan to develop the regional product, market and promotion strategies,” Caberte stressed.

To increase exports, she said “we plan to move up the value chain, capture higher value processes in the global supply chain and develop product linkages for organic, natural and certification enabled products.”

For next year, the Central Visayas region will be focusing more on the sources for export growth particularly in homestyle and garment products, organic and natural products, and services sector or BPOs.

“To widen our international market, we would like to maximize benefits of Free Trade Agreements [FTAs], target high growth emerging markets, and attract the migration of supply chain node to the Philippines,” Caberte concluded. (FREEMAN)