Trade Dept. dreams of doubling PHL exports, creating 9.1M jobs

Doubling the value of exports of goods and services to $120 billion by 2012 could generate 9.1 million jobs, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said Monday.

“[As] per our estimates: if we double our exports, it could add an additional 9.1 million job opportunities,” Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said during Monday’s budget hearing at the Senate.

“That is a theoretical number… If we are able to double our exports, then… we will create 9.1 million job opportunities,” he said.

As of April 2012, the labor force in the country has increased to 40.6 million, said Domingo, noting the “participation rate” at 64.7 percent.

The services sector employed 51 percent of the country’s laborers, 33 percent worked for agriculture, and 16 percent for the manufacturing sector, the Trade chief noted.

The unemployment rate is now at 6.9 percent and the underemployment rate is 19.3 percent.

The plan to create 9.1 million jobs and wipe out unemployment in the country was a “dream,” Senator Loren Legarda, however, said.

“Yan ay isang magandang adhikain at panaginip na dapat yan ang ating tatahaking landas,” she said in an interview with reporters after Monday’s hearing.

“Doubling your exports is an objective, but not easy to do in 12 months… and not even in three years,” the senator also said during the hearing. “We need to provide incentives and get everything working.”

Senator Edgardo Angara, who facilitated Monday’s budget hearing, said it might be “possible” to achieve the Trade Department’s plan in five years.

“They [DTI] were quite optimistic,” Angara said in a separate interview after the hearing. “They said they can double it but it requires effort. There’s no penalty for dreaming so let’s try.”

The DTI should instead focus on helping micro- and small- and medium-sized enterprises or SMEs, Legarda proposed. “Ang driver ng ating ekonomiya ay talagang maliliit na negosyo sa kanayunan,” she said.

“Bigyan natin ng product development, ng kapital, ng tulong ang mga maliliit na negosyo sa kanayunan… Sila ay magiging self- employed… At kung ating tutulungan ay maaari pa silang sumali sa export market… Makaka-pag-produce ng self-employment at mababawasan ang unemployment sa ating bansa,” she added.

Almost 90 percent of jobs created in the Philippines were created by these enterprises, Angara noted.

During Monday’s hearing, Domingo said business registrations by SMEs grew by 30 to 35 percent, adding that small enterprises are those capitalized at P3 to 15 million. — VS, GMA News