Exporters raise export growth goal
By Ronnel Domingo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:31:00 07/24/2008
Exporters are revising their revenue growth target for the year to 8.0-9.0 percent from 6.0 percent as the draft of the 2008-2010 Philippine Export Development Plan was unveiled Wednesday.
Export revenue in 2008 may reach $64.2 billion this year from $58.8 billion last year, mainly due to the services sector, said Senen Perlada, executive director of the government-private sector Export Development Council.
“Growth in services will outpace that in manufacturing,” said Perlada, who is director of the Bureau of Export Trade Promotion.
He added that under a proposed “ambitious” export plan, revenue growth could reach 14 percent to $73.2 billion in 2009 and 15 percent to $84.4 billion in 2010.
He said the draft was still open to revisions and comments from exporters and other stakeholders in the industry.
Perlada said the growth drivers were automotive parts, electronics, food, home products, minerals, natural non-food products, and textile, footwear, apparel, and travel goods.
Other sectors expected to bring in dollars are information and communication technology, construction, and emerging services like logistics, entertainment and education, he said
Development of the new plan was delayed. Philippine Exporters Confederation president Sergio Ortiz-Luis earlier said the planning process needed to be extended to “put more flesh into the plan, as domestic and global trends were moving against exporters’ survival had come in rapid succession in the second half of 2007.” With editing by INQUIRER.net
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