Neglected manufacturing sector needs to be revived — NEDA chief

Despite a five-percent pick-up in the first half of the year, the country’s manufacturing sector needs help to recover after nearly 30 years of “stagnation,” says an economic expert.

“There’s no question to our mind that we need to revive our manufacturing sector. We have neglected that sector [for] almost three decades,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said at the Economic Briefing at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on Monday.

However, “we are seeing some changes in the sector,” added the National Economic and Development Authority head.

The changes seem to be positive, as the sector grew over five percent in the first half of this year, according to Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo. He called it “significant growth.”

“The Philippines is second to China in the Asian region [during this period]… and we expect strong third and fourth quarters,” he said at the economic leaders’ summit.

Balisacan noted that seven years ago, semiconductors constituted 77 percent of the sector’s products. These days, he said, the percentage is “50 percent down” from that, a sign of the “diversification of our [manufactured] exports,” said the NEDA chief.

“The composition of our exports has increased quite significantly,” he said.

The diversification is mainly due to an increasing number of non-electronic products in the food processing and health fields being exported, said Balisacan.

It could also be more apparent due to semiconductors’ 12.1-percent decrease in export earnings year-on-year in July due to a slowdown in global demand.

But Balisacan said there is “so much prospect” in the area of food processing, not unlike the more explored areas of semiconductors and business process outsourcing. — BM, GMA News