BOI prepares second industry resurgence program
The Board of Investments (BOI) is expected to accelerate the creation of a second industrial manufacturing resurgence program following the implementation of the CARS (Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy) Program.
Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez, who is also BOI chairman, told reporters that the next manufacturing resurgence will still be in the industrial sector with huge industry linkage. He, however, declined to divulge the industry aside from saying that it has huge economic impact just like the CARS Program.
“The next industry resurgence program must be competitive, with wide industry linkage and huge jobs potential. It is part of the industry roadmaps,” he added. There are already a total of 32 completed industry roadmaps crafted by the BOI in collaboration with their respective industries.
Then DTI Secretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr., who spearheaded the crafting of industry roadmaps, had once said that the BOI was keen on developing a special program for the shipbuilding industry to encourage the manufacture of inter-island vessels or the RO-RO type of vessels that will be used for the domestic market.
“We want to develop the shipbuilding operations also for the production of small vessels for the domestic market,” said Cristobal. He also added that BOI was starting a study and industry assessment for the planned program. Cristobal hinted it could be similar to CARS, which grants $600-million incentive package to three car companies that can produce 200,000 units each or 600,000 units of cars over a six-year period.
Cristobal was then toying the idea enticing first the existing shipbuilders in the country to build small vessels for inter-island transport in the country.
So far, there are five shipbuilders in the country, making the Philippines the world’s fourth largest shipbuilder today after South Korea, China and Japan.
There are also two Filipino-owned shipbuilding firms – Herma Shipyard Inc. and Colorado Shipyard Corp. Herma has recently gone into double hull petroleum tanker shipbuilding, while Colorado can build medium to large cargo ships. The three big shipbuilders are foreign firms Hanjin Heavy Industries Corporation of South Korea, Tsuneishi of Japan, and Keppel of Singapore. These foreign companies are producing for the export market what the BOI is looking at is production that will include the local market as well.
Building small vessels for domestic transportation has also a social dimension in the Philippines whose transportation needs upgrading. Being the second largest archipelago in the world, the Philippines is suitable to become a shipbuilding base.
Aside from the strong local demand for inter-island vessels, Cristobal noted that RORO vessel manufacturers can also look beyond the Philippine shores and into the ASEAN countries.