Export recovery to sustain momentum this year – DTI

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry is bullish that export recovery will continue this year.

"We are expecting a rebound this year," said DTI Central Visayas Director Asteria Caberte in an interview recently.

"It's felt among more resilient exporters," she said.

She cited the March 2017 report of UK-based Oxford Economics that tagged the Philippines as among the winners in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of export growth.

The report entitled "Asia Globalization Winners and Losers Trade Places" said the country's export growth "strongly outperformed" global demand in the last seven years.

Oxford Economics identified the Philippines, China, India and South Korea as the nations that saw robust gains in productivity and moved up the value chain, gaining global market share in the process from 2010 to 2017.

Its data showed that from 2010 to 2016, the Philippines enjoyed a compounded yearly export growth rate of 7.8 percent, exceeding India’s 5.4 percent, South Korea’s 5.3 percent, China’s 4.6 percent, Indonesia’s 4.1 percent, Malaysia’s 3.7 percent, Australia’s 3.2 percent, Singapore, Thailand’s 2 percent and Taiwan’s 1.4 percent.

Caberte said local exporters have been "up and about" as they maintained their market presence.

However, she said there were exporters who closed down during the past five years due to soft global demand but there are those who have stayed afloat until now.

"We'd like to capture that opportunity," she noted.

Fenina Bonoan, assistant chief at DTI-Export Marketing Bureau's Consumer and Industrial Division, said export prospects are still positive given the free trade agreements being pursued by the Philippines.

These include the trade agreement with Europe, Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Philippine exports started 2017 with an uptrend, as it rose 22.5 percent in January.

The trade agency sees exports recovering this year as they exports totaled $5.130 billion January, up 22.5 percent from $4.187 billion recorded in the same period last year, data showed.

“We are positive that we will continue to drive growth and recovery for the export sector as we increase our efforts in promoting Philippine industries throughout the year in various key markets. We take the consistent growth since the last quarter of 2016 as a sign for positive outlook in the coming months,” said Trade Undersecretary Nora Terrado was quoted as saying in a statement.

Economic Planning Chief Ernesto Pernia earlier said the recovery could be "a signal that our efforts in forging better relations with our Asian neighbors and the EU are finally paying off."  (FREEMAN)