Electronics exporters turn less pessimistic

by Louella Desiderio (The Philippine Star), 30 Sep 2020

MANILA, Philippines—The Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (SEIPI) has revised its forecast for the country’s total electronics exports and now sees a smaller contraction of 15 percent this year.

“We have updated our forecast to a decline of 15 percent ,” SEIPI president Dan Lachica said during the group’s webinar yesterday.

The new forecast is better than the 20 percent decline seen earlier by the SEIPI.

Prior to the pandemic, SEIPI expects a five percent growth for electronics exports this year.

Last year, the country’s shipments of electronic products to other countries reached $43.3 billion.

While the country’s electronics exports registered a double-digit decline from January to July compared to last year’s level, Lachica said the group is hopeful of seeing improvements based on demand.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed the country’s electronics exports reached $19.44 billion from January to July, 13 percent lower than last year’s $22.35 billion.

“We just hope that the situation with our supply chain and availability of transportation for workers improves,” Lachica said.

He also said SEIPI is pushing for the reduction of corporate income tax (CIT) under the proposed Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises or CREATE Act.

Apart from lowering the CIT, CREATE will also introduce changes to incentives provided by the government to make these performance-based, targeted, time-bound and transparent.

“We are hoping the incentives rationalization, the version that is going to come out of the Senate and approved by the President, will be favorable to the industry to help us get through this COVID challenge, recover and hopefully, move forward and get back on track to growth,” Lachica said.