IT-BPM sector eyes bigger European market share
THE Philippine IT and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry said it is eyeing to increase its market share in Europe with talks for a free trade deal under way.
“Well, you know, free trade is always a good idea,” IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (Ibpap) President Jack Madrid told reporters in a recent interview.
The IT-BPM industry market in Europe is indeed growing, the Ibpap head said, “but I would like it to be bigger. We’re still dominated by North America.”
According to Madrid, he recently joined the presidential mission to Europe, where he said the Manila team received a “good ” reception, especially in Germany and Czech Republic.
“We need to promote the country a little bit more in europe so that they are aware of the special talent of the Filipino workforce,” said the Ibpap head.
Madrid also noted that Ibpap inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a counterpart organization in Czech Republic, “to identify mutual investors.”
The industry group earlier told the Businessmirror in a Viber message that Europe accounts for only 15 percent of the industry’s revenue—compared to 70 percent from North America and 15 percent from Asia Pacific.
Madrid also told reporters that a number of German firms have already been doing “good” business in the Philippines “for many, many years,” but noted that “Czech is something we want to eventually capture. It’s a country with a low population. So I think we can identify what verticals we can help them with.”
The semiconductor and electronics sector, another major exporting industry in the Philippines, also recently said it is keen on increasing its presence in Europe following the European Commission’s announcement that the 27-member European Union is relaunching negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Philippines.
“The intent really is to promote trade; as you know the electronics industry is the biggest commodity exporter,” Danilo C. Lachica, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (Seipi), said in a recent televised interview.
“We accounted for about 62 percent of our exports and the thing about it is that you know, Asia and the US are our main export destinations, main trade partners, but we don’t have much in Europe.”
The Seipi chief noted that Netherlands and Germany are the top buyers of Philippine-made electronics in Europe.
Lachica also said he had the opportunity to join President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Czech Republic.
“In fact, after we signed the MOU, that was last Friday, we’ve already had inquiries from Czech companies looking for potential partners in the Philippines. So it bodes well for our industry.”
At the virtual briefing of the European Commission (EC) last week, EC Executive Vice President (EVP) Valdis Dombrovskis and Philippine Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual formally announced the resumption of FTA negotiations between the EU and the Philippines.
Dombrovskis said “The conditions are right to take our trade relations to the next level,” adding, “Trade between the EU and the Philippines is already strong and has been growing at an impressive pace over the past decade.”
But the EC official said, “we can do more to realize the full potential of our trade relationship.”
He noted that trade in goods between the two parties was worth over €18.4 billion in 2022, while trade in services was worth €4.7 billion in 2021.
For his part, Philippines’s Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said an FTA wtih the European Union will expand market access in goods, serices and investments “significantly.”
“It aims to enhance commercial interactions between our business sectors, create valuable opportunities for our service providers, especially professionals and establish reciprocal rules and standards,” Pascual said. (Full story here: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2024/03/20/phl-eu-negotiations-on-free-trade-resume/)