IN the face of $49 billion in unrealized earnings annually, the Philippines targets exports to more than double in six years to $240.5 billion by 2028, a draft of the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) showed.
“We are seeing that it’s possible if we all do things together …we will try to get $240.5 billion in export earnings by 2028 from $113 billion we are expecting this year,” said economist Cielito Habito of Brain Trust Inc. who presented the PEDP at the National Export Congress yesterday.
Habito said the PEDP “would be aggressive, inclusive, innovative, integrated, and regenerative. “
In his keynote speech in the same forum, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual called on the public and private sectors to work together to unlock the country’s unrealized export potential of $49 billion a year.
Based on Habito’s presentation, exports will be driven by electronics and electrical; agriculture and agri-based; transport; home furnishings; wearables, fashion accessories and travel goods; minerals; information technology-business process management and chemicals. These products account for 88.5 percent of the country’s exports.
PEDP sees exports reaching $126.8 billion in 2023; $143.4 billion in 2024; $163.6 billion in 2025; $186.7 billion in 2026 and; $212.1 billion in 2027.
The PEDP also laid out the strategies to achieve these goals.
Habito noted the need to expand the demand for Philippine exports by
intensifying trade promotion, promotion, marketing, design, innovation and branding initiatives; pursue active membership in regional and bilateral preferential trading arrangements, starting with the immediate ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership; attract and retain domestic and foreign investments, especially in the export of high value products and services that adequately support the export firms infrastructure requirements; provide various forms of financing to support the fixed and working capital requirements of exporters of all sizes; and cluster and consolidate small producers to achieve volume and economies of scale.
Pascual , who is chairman of the Export Development Council, said: “We need to push this ($49 billion) potential and achieve sustainable and inclusive industrialization.”
Pascual said exports have been growing but “at a rate slower than most of (the Philippines’) competitors and need to be faster to gain a bigger share of the opportunities in the global market.”
Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. said the country can surely exceed last year’s $87 billion to $100 billion this year.
