THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said export targets to 2028 will depend greatly on the levels of investment attracted to the Philippines.
It added that such targets are set to be recalibrated this week.
“What is very critical in achieving our export targets are investment-driven exports,” DTI Export Marketing Bureau Director Bianca Pearl R. Sykimte told reporters.
“The Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2023-2028 recognizes that we cannot simply grow without foreign investment . We have also seen the experience of other countries,” she added.
She cited the example of Vietnam and Malaysia.
“In Vietnam, their exports of telephones or Samsung phones accounted for about $65 billion,” she said.
“Another example is Malaysia’s exports of integrated circuits, (which were worth) about $78 billion – roughly the total exports of the Philippines in 2022. So most of it, if not all, are investment-driven,” she added.
At the National Export Congress last week, Undersecretary for the Industry Development, Trade and Investment Promotion Group Ceferino S. Rodolfo said the Philippines has the potential to exceed the goals set out in the PEDP.
“In the PEDP, the target was to double our 2021 exports by the end of the President’s term … and I think that doubling the 2021 exports is (a modest goal),” Mr. Rodolfo said.
“With all of the collaboration, maybe we should work to achieve four times or maybe five times 2021 exports,” he added.
In 2021, total exports – which include services – amounted to $87.8 billion, while the PEDP target for 2028 is $240.5 billion.
Ms. Sykimte said that the department has yet to discuss how to achieve four to five times the level of 2021 exports by 2028.
“We will have a meeting internally with DTI to review the export targets so we will have to recalibrate,” she said.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Tuesday released a preliminary estimate for the value of merchandise exports, which contracted 17.5% to $6.36 billion in October, reversing the 20.1% growth from a year earlier.
The PSA said manufactured goods, which comprised 81.5% of total export receipts, declined 21.1% year-on-year to $5.19 billion in October. — Justine Irish DP Tabile