DTI unveils new industrial strategy

By Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), November 29, 2016

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has unveiled a new industrial strategy that would revive the country’s manufacturing sector and accelerate further its growth in the coming years.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the new strategy would focus on industries where the Philippines has existing and potential comparative advantage to generate employment and promote entrepreneurship.

The five priority industries include manufacturing, agribusiness, information technology-business process management, tourism, and infrastructure and logistics.

Lopez said while the services industry was the main driver of the country’s growth in past decades, the manufacturing industry has been playing an important role and has been contributing substantially to economic growth since 2013.

In the third quarter of the year, the manufacturing sector rose 6.9 percent, higher than the 5.8 percent posted in the same period in 2015.

“Our manufacturing is getting stronger. In the past, it has been overtaken by the services with a growth of about three to four percent while services is growing at about six to seven percent or eight. Now, manufacturing is hitting also seven to eight percent,” Lopez said.

With the new industrial strategy in place, the trade chief said the manufacturing sector is eyed to accelerate to an average of eight to 10 percent in the next six years.

The new industrial strategy is DTI’s response to sustain the country’s ongoing high level growth, while also addressing the issue of unemployment where the bulk are young people with aged 15 to 24 years.

“Given these characteristics of our workforce, our industrial strategy focuses on labor intensive industries such as food and resource-based manufacturing, tourism, garments and construction,” Lopez said.

Lopez said the new industrial strategy would seek to create globally competitive, value adding, innovative, and inclusive industries.

“This industrial strategy is the best way to uplift the lives of Filipinos towards the goal of sustainable inclusive growth and shared prosperity for all. This is needed not only to generate jobs and reduce poverty but also to take advantage of market opportunities,” he said.