Local manufacturers reminded to step up

CEBU, Philippines - As the Philippines prepares for the resurgence of the manufacturing sector, local players are once again reminded to strengthen further and take advantage of the government's move to fast track the development of the industry.

Department of Trade Industry assistant secretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo said that the government is now bent on resurrecting the country's weak manufacturing sector.

Early this year, the government has allotted P2.3 billion ($50.8 million) in the 2014 national budget to fund a program aimed at reviving the manufacturing sector.

DTI is leading the government's resurgence program which will also involve the departments of Science and Technology, Labor and Employment, and Energy.

The budget was allotted to these agencies where a converging program to develop manufacturing will be designed and carried out.

The money will also be used to revive the Industry Development Council, the official policy-making body of the DTI, this year.

Board of Investments director Ma. Corazon Halili-Dichosa said there are several challenges that the manufacturing sector in the Philippines should address with the help of the government.

These are the huge untapped potential of the sector; lower share of manufacturing to total GDP (gross domestic product) compared to similarly situated ASEAN countries, exports still concentrated on few products/markets, low employment to growth elasticity, skills mismatch, among others.

Under the manufacturing resurgence program Rodolfo said the mandate of the multi-agency collaboration is to pursue industrial policy that promotes resurgence of an internationally-competitive manufacturing sector. This would include revisiting the backbone sectors, such as apparel, footwear, motor vehicles and parts, among others.

Meanwhile, while the Philippines is trying its best to bring back the manufacturing sector to life, local business leaders are asking for a more competitive business environment, specifically for the local manufacturing sector.

"It is still expensive to do manufacturing here," said Philippine Retailers Association (PRA-Cebu Chapter) president Robert Go in an earlier interview.

Problems like labor cost, expensive taxes for machinery importation, high power rates, as well as uncompetitive logistics charges, among others are just few of the concerns that local manufacturers facing right now, in the face of borderless economy, Go said.

Go, who is also a former president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry said unless the government will craft a special program that will make local manufacturers thrive amid the obvious and difficult competition with global and big players, some players in the local manufacturing sector may succumb to natural death in this kind of business. (FREEMAN)