DTI chief sees slower GDP growth

Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said he expected the Philippine economy to grow at a slower pace this year as the worsening congestion at the Port of Manila continued to make a significant dent on business operations.

Domingo noted in an interview that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP)  growth might likely be “a tad lower” than his earlier projection of 6.5 percent for 2014. As it is, this projection was already at the lower end of the range that was forecast by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

According to Domingo, the continued truck congestion and the container pileup at the country’s busiest port would have a “negative impact on growth in the second and third quarter” this year, affecting primarily the country’s exports and imports. He, however, said he believed that the local economy would be able to recover in the fourth quarter this year and the succeeding quarters, with the resolution of a problem that was aggravated primarily by the expanded truck ban policy implemented by the city government of Manila.

The policy, implemented starting February this year, bans eight wheelers and vehicles with a gross weight of above 4,500 kilos from plying Manila’s streets between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Measures are already being undertaken to help decongest the Port of Manila and stabilize operations there by Aug. 15, the Department of Trade and Industry said in a July 28 letter to the Chamber of Customs Brokers Inc.

Based on a statement issued by the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. last Friday, the letter sent by Trade Undersecretary Victorio Mario Dimagiba stated that among the measures being implemented included the transfer of 3,000 containers abandoned for at least six months from Manila ports to the port of Subic “at the expense of the port operator.”

Other measures meant to relieve the problems at the port, as identified by Dimagiba in the letter, also included the deployment by five shipping lines of sweepers at the Manila International Container Terminal and the Manila South Harbor to clear empty containers; use of Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) sites as staging areas for empty containers, and urging importers to work on Sundays and Monday mornings to move their containers.

Port fees, Dimagiba said in the letter, would likely be increased to P5,000 a day for containers that remained idle for more than five days.

For now, however, the congestion continued to take its toll on companies, which are reeling from a double whammy of double-digit losses in revenues and equally crippling increases in import- and export-related expenses.

Alfredo Yao, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, earlier warned that this situation might become permanent and be further exacerbated by opportunistic traders and businessmen wanting to take advantage of the crisis.

European-led companies had earlier reiterated their call to lift the expanded truck ban policy in Manila while moving empty containers to areas near economic zones in a bid to decongest the country’s busiest port.

“We need to address this logistics problem at the Port of Manila so we can sustain the economic momentum that the country has been enjoying,” Yao said.