Capacity building needed to sustain exports growth

CEBU, Philippines - If capacity building for exporters in the Philippines will be implemented, local exporters may increase its production level to achieve and exceed growth of US$120 billion by 2016.

In a report, PhilExport said that capacity building for Filipino exporters must be addressed to increase exports which will translate to sustainable growth and development.

Based on World Bank’s recent report, the Philippines scores the lowest among comparable ASEAN countries in terms of export survival.

This grim scenario was the conclusion made by World Bank in the selected special focus section of the latest issue of the Philippine Quarterly Update, its quarterly magazine devoted to the latest economic and social trends in the country.

WB pointed out that despite being an open economy, the Philippines’ openness to trade is lower than its neighbors and its exports have been growing slower than its gross national product.

Meanwhile, Indian Ambassador to the Philippines, Amit Dasgupta emphasized the importance of capacity building in order to sustain the growth of export in the country.

The Indian market, for instance, offers huge opportunities since it has a 1.2 billion consumer base and with US$4.5 trillion in gross domestic last year. These figures drive growth, create demand and therefore needs more supply, the Ambassador said.

According to the United National Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO, the three key problem areas that require specialized assistance to enable expansion and competitiveness of exports especially from developing countries are the lack of marketable products for exports, lack of capacity to conform to international standards and the lack of information on rules of trade, markets and procedures to connect with export markets.

Capacity building therefore is another factor that the government must address primarily to keep the local exporters competitive in the international trade.

Another example of capacity building measure that the government should also look into is the compliance of local exporters to technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary phutosanitary (SPS) measures from the developed countries like the United States, European Union, China and Japan.

The WB report added that the “global market share of Philippine main export, semiconductors, has continued to decline.” Adverse external environment and changing technology which the Philippines is yet to adopt, plus stagnant physical capital per worker were cited as the primary reasons behind the decline. (FREEMAN)