MANILA – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) remains confident it is still on track to attain export targets of USD122 billion to USD130 billion by 2022, even after merchandise export performance declined by 3.1 percent in the first quarter this year.
“We expect a positive growth trajectory to set in in the subsequent quarters,” DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said in a statement.
Lopez said the government is continuously working on diversifying the country’s export offerings and destinations; and is also pursuing trade initiatives to increase exports to trade partners.
He noted his department is looking at focusing its promotional efforts for products and services considered as export growth drivers, including office equipment, consumer electronics, motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts, high-value coconut products, forest products, and wearables.
On services exports, audiovisual/creative industries, healthcare information management systems, software development, and tourism-related services will receive more focus, he added.
Lopez further said DTI is also maximizing opportunities under existing preferential trade agreements with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, India as well as with European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries.
It is also promoting more products to the US and European Union to expand utilization of their Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) schemes, he said.
“Trade promotional efforts are also being done on the non-traditional markets in Russia, Africa, Latin America and South Asia. These markets are expected to experience high economic growths and with their huge population can provide for alternative export markets in the near future,” he added.
Based on the latest preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), electronics, which comprises more than half of merchandise exports, dipped by 1.7 percent to USD8.8 billion in the first quarter.
Non-electronics, on the other hand, decreased by 4.8 percent to USD7.5 billion.
The PSA said total export sales in March 2019 reached USD5.88 billion, down slightly by 2.5 percent from the USD6.02 billion during the same period in 2018.
“In general, we consider this as a reflection of the slowdown in the global economy,” Lopez said. “Out of 11 trade-oriented Asian economies, nine countries declined in their export performance and only Vietnam and China registered positive performance.” (PNA)
