MANILA – The Marcos administration’s export development blueprint will be released on June 9, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual said Thursday.
In a Palace briefing, Pascual said the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2023-2028 will list strategies of the government in the next five years to increase the exports of goods and services from the country.
“And of course, that’s tied up also with the investments that we are trying to bring in, particularly the export-oriented investments,” he said.
For the last two years of the previous PEDP, the Export Development Council, chaired by the DTI chief, revised export targets amid the impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
In 2022, the EDC lowered its target to USD105.3 billion from its initial target of USD130 billion, with USD62 billion coming from merchandise exports and USD43.3 billion from services exports.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that exports of goods and services last year only reached USD98.52 billion, of which USD57.45 billion were merchandise exports and USD41.07 billion were services revenues.
Pascual said the country will take advantage of the newly ratified Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in the PEDP.
RCEP will enter into force in the Philippines on June 2, 2023.
Pascual earlier said investments play a crucial role in improving the country’s exports industry.
“Evidently, we need to diversify our export basket, and investments play a key role in developing Philippine capabilities to produce and export more of higher value products. We will focus on investment attraction and industry development in sectors where we have established capabilities that can serve as a solid foundation for export growth and are well-positioned to seize opportunities in emerging trends,” he said in a statement last weekend. (PNA)
