MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said yesterday they are confident that the country will be able to hit the $80.2 billion export revenue target for this year despite the continued uncertainty in the global market.
Bureau of Export Trade Promotion director Senen M. Perlada, who is also the executive director of the Export Development Council, said that “the private sector and the DTI will keep the absolute target for 2012.”
According to Perlada, to compensate for the loss of revenues from merchandise exports, services exports must be increased.
Services exports, which include information technology and business process outsourcing, presently only accounts for 20 percent of total exports.
Electronics exports accounts for almost half of total exports.
“This trend in the services exports will cushion the decline in export receipts and help us meet our targets in 2012,” he said.
While the passage of House Bill 3596 or “Call Center and Consumers Protection Bill” in the US Congress is seen as a threat to the Philippines’ booming business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, Perlada said that “it will ultimately be a business decision on the part of the companies.”
“What we can do is to improve on the attractiveness of the Philippines as a destination of business process outsourcing,” Perlada said.
Perlada also sees a growth this year in tourism-related services. According to Perlada “tourists are considered the first line of distribution of our goods and services. Similarly, they can also be investors in tourism.”
He said that “with the help of our tourism and commercial attachés abroad, we see an increase in tourism investment in the Philippines.”
DTI recently organized so-called Global Marketing Intelligence Teams (GMITs), composed of eight teams like America, South Asia, North Asia, Middle East and North Africa.
The teams are made up of representatives from the DTI the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Tourism and the Department of Agriculture and other agencies and stakeholders involved in international business.
As composite teams, the GMITs will work together to harmonize programs to make the most of resources.
With the looming crisis in the US and Europe and Japan, Perlada said the Philippines will expand exports to China and to countries where we have free trade agreements (FTAs) such as North Asia, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Perlada pointed out that 57 percent of Philippine merchandise exports already go to those countries. Utilization of exporters of the FTAs with partner countries has reached 30 percent based on discussions with the private sector. The figures may still have to be validated by the Bureau of Customs, though, Perlada added.
Perlada said that DTI would continue to conduct information sessions on doing business in FTAs to make small and medium enterprise exporters understand and use the opportunities presented by the agreements.