By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
Mindful of the global challenges pose by logistics, inflation and other external factors that lead to the slowdown in export, the Philippine gear up to implement various strategies that aim to ramp up the export to industry and support the local manufacturers in the Philippines.
Digitalization, streamlining, expansion of electronics and other key industries are the measures being considered to boost ease of doing business in the country and achieve “catch-up plan” to reverse decline in exports.
Secretary Frederick Go, Presidential Adviser on Investment and Economic Affairs, said the catch-up, which also includes attracting foreign investments and investing in infrastructure, targets to realize the country’s untapped export potential of $49 billion.
Go said his office is working into how to really support the electronics sector which comprise about 60 percent of the country’s total exports.
“The industry has only grown bigger and given the Philippine status as a top global exporter of electronics with the particular strength in the semiconductors, it is an opportune time to fully harness the potential of this sector and to create an entire ecosystem that produces high value products for the global market,” he said during the general membership meeting of Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc.
“The key here is there is a pivot now away from China by a lot of the Western as well as the Asian countries and a lot of the attention is now going to our neighboring countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. The most important part of my office’s job now is to ensure that the Philippines gets a respectable market share of this pivot away from China, especially in the semiconductors sector,” he said.
On mining and mineral processing, Go said the Philippines is in a viable position to capitalize on the expanding nickel processing market as nickel is a key component in electric vehicles.
“We are the sixth largest in the world in terms of nickel reserves but actually importantly, we are the second largest exporter of nickel to the world and I believe that the Philippines has a huge potential of capturing the value chain by not exporting raw nickel ore but by processing the ore downstream and exporting processed nickel, or what is otherwise known as pure nickel or nickel concentrate,” he said.
He added the country is studying the success story of Indonesia which has transformed into a global powerhouse for nickel processing, and “all we need to do now is to learn from it and improve on it.”
In recognition of the importance of foreign direct investments in growing the economy, Go said his office is currently focused on encouraging investments in energy particularly renewable energy, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, digitalization, tourism and infrastructure.
On investing in infrastructure, he said the administration’s Build Better More program is currently in progress and vigorously implemented.
The infrastructure plan is envisioned to drive economic growth within and across markets, he added.
Further, Go said the government is undertaking measures to boost ease of doing business to make the Philippines an attractive and competitive hub for businesses.
He also cited regional integration and bilateral agreements which are important to exporters.
“These vital agreements enable us to expand markets, promote diversification and strengthen economic ties with other countries,” he added.