DTI taps logistics sector to create jobs for PH

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is targeting to create 7.5 million jobs by 2022, which will be done in part with the help of the logistics sector.

To do this, both the public and private sectors issued a list of commitments for the Philippines logistics services sector, such as cutting red tape. A copy of this document was shared to the media last week.

This was released during the first ever Logistics Services Philippines Conference and Exhibition.

“Together, we affirm the role of logistics services as one of the country’s key employment-generating sectors that will help create 7.5 million jobs … by 2022,” the document read.

Marilyn Alberto, Philippine Multimodal Transport and Logistics Association, Inc. president, said it was the government who came up with the targets, not the private sector.

“There is no data [on where we are now]. That’s why we’re pushing them to come up with more monitoring of the data so we know where we are and where we’re going,” Alberto said.

Based on a DTI policy brief, logistics costs in the Philippines, the highest among selected Southeast Asian countries, largely ate up the sales of manufacturing firms last year.

The cost of logistics in the Philippines took up 27.16 percent of sales, the largest cost to sales ratio when compared to three other Asian countries.

Indonesia followed with 21.4 percent, a figure that DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said the Philippines should eventually match.

Vietnam ranked third with 16.3 percent. Thailand, for its part, had the lowest cost with 11.11 percent.