Medium-term export plan to push high-value items

IN line with the new administration’s policy, the medium-term export plan will push the development of higher-value products and services, a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) official said. Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. told a forum last week that the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2011-2013 would focus on the value-added of the country’s export industries.

“For example, in mining, rather than just extraction and exporting mineral products abroad, we can [develop it] together with the jewelry sector,” the DTI official said.

Alongside the drafting of the PEDP 2011-2013, the Board of Investments (BOI) would revive developing industry studies for key sectors, he said.

“For years, this unit of BOI was not active . . . BOI was focusing more on promotions,” he said.

Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo earlier told The Manila Times that the BOI would revive the development of long-term plans for the best-performing industries.

Among the criteria in choosing the sectors would be their revenues, exports and employment generation potentials, he said.

When Domingo was DTI undersecretary as well as BOI managing head during the previous administration, the department implemented a “brand management system,” wherein the performance of more than 10 sectors were monitored and their needs addressed.

The DTI has identified six priority sectors—tourism, information technology-business process outsourcing, semiconductor and electronics, mining, housing, and agriculture—that would enjoy government support.

Domingo last week told a separate forum that shipbuilding would also be included.

“There are two big shipbuilders in the Philippines—Hanjin in Subic and Tsuneishi Heavy Industries Cebu of Japan. I was just informed, with these two companies, we are already the fourth largest shipbuilding country in the world,” the DTI chief said, adding that these shipbuilders have vast opportunities to expand their capacities.

Korean-led Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp.-Philippines had announced that it would increase its workforce to 22,000 from the current 16,600, as after sealing deals for the construction of 20 additional vessels worth about $1.2 billion. —BEN ARNOLD O. DE VERA REPORTER, Manila Times