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THE
semiprivate Export Development Council (EDC) has
completed the crafting of a three-year Philippine
export-development blueprint that takes into
consideration the current global and national economic
situation.
Sergio-Ortiz Luis, president of the Philippine Exporters
Confederation (Philexport) that cochairs the EDC, said
they are doing a final check of the export assumptions,
including the official targets for 2008 to 2010. “We
will submit it to Malacañang.”
He said
the EDC initially set a 6-percent merchandise-export
growth target for the year, but this was put on hold
after some sectors sought a revalidation of the base
numbers and assumptions.
The EDC
assumption for electronics is for growth to remain
positive for the year but, Ortiz-Luis said, the
semiconductor-and-electronics industry still wants to
hold on to its target of flat growth for the year, with
the possibility of going negative.
Thus,
Philexport will maintain its original projection of a
3-percent to 5-percent export growth based on the
expectations of the electronics industry. The targets
for 2009 and 2010 will depend on the final numbers that
will be set for 2008.
Expected
to do well this year are agricultural exports,
especially coconut oil, furniture and wiring harness, he
said, and the business-process outsourcing sector, whose
contribution to the performance targets some want broken
down by industries.
The EDC
started work on the new export-development plan early
this year with six new challenges identified as crucial—Asean
integration, strengthening of the peso, high cost of
commodities, energy security, cost of doing business and
brain drain.
Dr.
Federico Macaranas, one of the representatives of the
National Competitiveness Council in the EDC, earlier
said these are market-driven issues that will be crucial
to the performance of the exporting community.
The
plan, which defines the country’s export strategies and
programs that will be implemented by the government and
the private sector, took a closer look into the
Philippines’ strengths and weaknesses in relation to the
global environment, the potential of the revenue
streams, the projection of the country’s export growth
and the linkage of the export plan to the national
competitiveness efforts. |
