DTI chief to focus on job creation

MANILA, Philippines – Identifying industries with the biggest potential and investing heavily in them may hold the key to robust job generation, according to newly appointed Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo.

“We need to create more jobs. We cannot promote (all) industries because we don’t have enough resources, so we need to select a few key industries,” Domingo said during his first meeting with reporters as the new DTI secretary.

He also said the department might reduce or altogether do away with offering incentives to investors through the Board of Investments (BOI).

Domingo is not new to the department, having served as undersecretary when Manuel Roxas II – who later became a senator – was the department’s head. He was also then the managing head of the BOI, an attached office of the DTI.

There are speculations that Roxas will eventually take over Domingo’s post once the one-year appointment ban on losing candidates lapses. Domingo merely shrugs his shoulders on being told of the rumor.

“I could be here for three months. If the President doesn’t like me I could be gone,” Domingo said.

“Before I was in BOI, I was undersecretary for industry and investment so my primary function then was to promote the Philippines,” he said.

“The call centers and BPO (business process outsourcing), we pushed that a lot under the past administration with Mar Roxas as the secretary,” he said.

“Now we will add trade and consumer,” he added.

He said he wants to make an impact in his first few months at DTI’s helm. “You want to deliver as much as you can in the first half.”

Meanwhile, Domingo said investment incentives for industries might be removed as part of the administration’s effort to raise revenue collection.

He explained that with a good business climate, investors would come even if they were not offered incentives.

“The incentives should be rationalized. Incentives should not be given to just any industry you want to give incentives to,” he said.

“If those industries are coming in anyway or setting up shop, then why do you have to give incentives?” he added.

Domingo said the incentives program might be retained for some industries, but he said he could not say at the moment which industries.

He also said the BOI should be given more autonomy in crafting ways of attracting investments, although safeguards should be put in place.

Domingo, who served as executive director of SM Investments Corp. before his appointment as Trade secretary, also vowed to review the last administrative order of former Secretary Jesli Lapus removing the expiration dates on gift certificates.

Domingo also promised to streamline the operations of BOI by instituting a zero-base budgeting process.

He also bared plans to review the bureaucracy and check it for any redundancy.

He said his team would be submitting a revised budget for the DTI by late August.

After leaving DTI in April 2004, Domingo served as independent director for the Manila Electric Co. from April 2005 to January 2008.

He had also served as director of BDO Private Bank and as vice chairman of Belle Corp.

Domingo had also worked for Carmerlay-JTCI and Chase Manhattan Bank, First Boston, Drexel Burnham Lambert and Mellon Bank.

Domingo earned his Bachelor of Science in Management Engineering from the Ateneo de Manila University, his Masters in Business Administration from the Asian Institute of Management and Master of Science in Operations Research from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.