NEDA identifies business growth areas

by Czeriza Valencia (The Philippine Star), Jul 1, 2019

MANILA, Philippines — In the near term, businesses can invest in four rapidly growing areas in terms of domestic consumption, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

Speaking during the recently held 27th Metro Manila Business Conference, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said growth in hotels and restaurants, education, health and transportation sectors has been exceeding the national growth average in the past five years.

“So what opportunities can the business sector capitalize on? On the demand side, economic growth is expected to be fueled by hotels and restaurants, health, education, and transport,” Pernia said.

According to Pernia, based on the average trend of household consumption in the past five years, growth has been fueled by the demand for restaurants and hotels with 8.5 percent growth rate; health, with 8.1 percent growth rate, education, 7.9 and transport, 7.6 percent.

“You will note that the growth of these industries far exceed the national economic growth rate. So these are the promising, booming industries and sectors,” Pernia told the business community.

Other than these industries, Pernia said the real estate industry would also continue to perform strongly as the government implements its catch up plan for infrastructure spending this year.

“Now that the 2019 budget impasse is over, we need to catch up on infra spending. Real estate will continue to be strong especially in urban areas,” Pernia said.

“Activities related to offshoring and outsourcing, flexible work spaces, and online gaming will continue to support the increase in office demand, while corporate housing, young professionals, and families will keep the demand for residential properties buoyant,” he said.

Looking forward with the fourth industrial revolution, NEDA sees 12 industry subsectors in the country that can benefit from the government’s industrial strategy.

These are: auto and auto parts; iron, and steel, tool and die; electronic manufacturing services; shipbuilding and ship-repair; aerospace parts and aircraft maintenance; furniture, garments, and creative industries; construction; chemicals; transports and logistics; tourism; IT-BPM & E-commerce; and agribusiness.

“Those are the 12 sectors that are promising, in terms of where you might want to put your money in,” Pernia said.

“We see innovation as an important factor in addressing challenges, brought about not only by globalization and rising regional economic integration, but also by the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, also referred to as Industry 4.0. The government’s inclusive innovation industrial strategy, aims at growing the manufacturing sector to be innovative and globally competitive, and closely tied with agriculture and services sector,” he said.