THE Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (Philexport) cited the need to support the expansion of the micro, small and medium enterprises and to resolve the education crisis to sustain growth.
At a general membership meeting last week, Philexport President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis, Jr. said making MSMEs competitive internationally will help strengthen the middle class.
“(This includes) export promotion, trade facilitation, capacity building, as well as (attracting) foreign direct investment that can help facilitate linkages with and technology transfer from multinational enterprises,” he said.
He cited the need to integrate trade, technology, and tourism into the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) five-point MSME plan.
Meanwhile, he said a robust education and skills development ecosystem is also needed to sustain economic growth, the better to reap the benefits of favorable demographics.
“The inability to absorb more workers into the labor force may negate the benefits of the Philippines’ demographic ‘sweet spot,’” which describes countries with a large cohort of young working-age people.
“This ‘window of opportunity’ has started for the Philippines as its working-age population is now growing faster than the overall population,” he added.
Mr. Ortiz-Luis called for the implementation of the government’s Trabaho Para sa Bayan plan and the Green Jobs Act.
He also cited the need to support manufacturing and agribusiness amid the declining share of these industries in gross domestic product.
“While consumption and the services sector do promote economic growth, it is also critical to arrest the decline of the manufacturing sector’s share of GDP in the country’s poverty reduction efforts,” he said.
“After all, the export and manufacturing sectors can offer stable, regular, and well-paying jobs for unskilled or semi-skilled workers,” he added.
During the meeting, DTI Competitiveness and Innovation Group Director Lilian Salonga noted opportunities in seizing share in the global market for creative services as production and distribution of creative goods continue to go online.
Ms. Salonga said that the Philippine music streaming market has generated $77 million in revenue, representing 31.4% compound annual growth from 2019 to 2023.
Over the same period, exports of creative goods peaked at $1.2 billion.
“Additionally, P-pop’s (Philippine pop) rising popularity has driven about an 800% increase daily in Spotify and also other streaming platforms,” she added.
Citing the Global Innovation Index report released last year, she said that the Philippines ranked 56th among the 132 economies and ranked 10th in creative goods exports within ASEAN.
“This highlights the country’s growth position in global trade. Of course, there is still a vast opportunity if we look into gaining leadership,” she added.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) Creative Economy Outlook 2024 valued global creative service exports at about $1.4 trillion in 2022, up 29% since 2017.
“The UNCTAD report said creative services now represent 19% of all global service exports, up from 12% a decade ago,” she added. — Justine Irish D. Tabile