MANILA, Philippines —The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) aims to grow the country’s export revenues by at least a tenth this year, with the government focusing on bringing in more foreign export manufacturing enterprises in a bid to help the vital sector catch up with industry targets.
“Based on market projections, without any [intervention], if it will be business as usual, about 10 percent is the growth. So definitely, we’ll try to achieve more than 10 percent for export growth,” DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau Director Bianca Pearl R. Sykimte told reporters in a recent roundtable discussion.
“It will be difficult but we really need to attract investment to build our domestic capacities. Again, 60 percent of the exports are electronics, and if you look at the sector it is really investment-driven,” she added.
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Sykimte said the Philippines actually needs to grow its export revenues by about 40 percent this year to meet the target earlier set by the government and the private sector.
Philippine Export Development Plan
Under the updated Philippine Export Development Plan that was launched in mid-June last year, the government and the private sector aimed to generate $143.4 billion worth of exports in 2024.
According to data released by the Philippine Statistic Authority on Jan. 10, the country’s total external trade in goods in 2023 amounted to $67.03 billion as of November, marking an annual decline of 13.7 percent from the previous year.
As for the Philippines service exports revenues, latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas covering January to September 2023 puts it at $34.7 billion, an increase of 20.7 percent compared to the preceding year.
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Meanwhile, Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said that part of their strategy on increasing exports is to attract more export-oriented foreign manufacturers to the Philippines and for these enterprises to bring along their suppliers as well.
“So, we will develop the ecosystem here for our manufacturing, especially in the areas of technology, semiconductor [and] electronics,” Pascual said.
Additionally, the trade chief said that they are also working on the development of micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises so that they can become a part of this ecosystem by becoming suppliers.