DTI names electronics among top priority sectors

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) named the electronics industry as one of its top priority industries and promised to bring back the $1-billion investments the country enjoyed during the industry’s prime in 2007.

In a meeting with the Semiconductors and Electronics Industry in the Philippines (SEIPI), Trade Secretary Gregory l. Domingo said that electronics along with the business process outsourcing (BPO) and tourism are the top three priority industries of the administration.

In a statement, SEIPI said that Domingo promised to improve the country’s business environment by strictly monitoring the competitiveness ratings and put a lot of effort in cutting red tape.

To cut the red tape, DTI will revamp all frontline services that deal with customers beginning with the registration of business names.

Likewise, the process of registering a business name will be cut down to 15 minutes from four to eight hours.

Earlier, SEIPI reported that investments in the electronics sector grew to $511 million for the first seven months of the year as it overshot last year’s investments figure of $469 million.

“The industry is very bullish in terms of investments,” SEIPI president Ernesto Santiago said.

In fact, he said their target is to reach $1 billion worth of investments for this year. For January to July, Santiago said most of the investors are new players.

However, the electronics industry said growth will start to slow down in the third and fourth quarter after growing by 44 percent for the first five months of the year.

“We are preparing for the softening of the market by the end of third quarter until the fourth quarter. Hopefully it does not extend until 2011,” Santiago said.

Because of the softening of the market, Santiago said it is possible that they will not be able to hit their revised target of 25 percent to 30 percent.

“For the third quarter, it will be lower than expected. The growth will taper down,” Santiago noted. –Ma. Elisa P. Osorio (The Philippine Star)