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Vital contribution

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has well recognized the shipping and logistics industry’s vital contribution in the country’s economic development.

DTI said the Philippines’ logistical costs account for 24 percent to 53 percent of wholesale prices.

Shipping and port handling costs cover 8 percent to 30 percent, given the goods’ route, and roughly 5 percent of the retail price of goods.

DTI noted that the Philippines placed 71st out of 160 countries in the Logistics Performance Index of World Bank.

The World Bank Logistics Performance Index provides the measures that would enable countries to perform well in distributing their goods.

- ness in more ways than one: facilitating trade and connectivity; contributing to the lowering cost and clearance time of imports and exports;

- agement encourages market expansion and

Role of the private sector

Dominguez said that the government could not work on its development program alone.

“We need the enthusiasm of the private sector to make the investments that will make expenditure for new infra worthwhile,” Dominguez said. “We need thousands of small and medium enterprises that will complete the supply chain of larger industries.”

“We need facilities that will hold aggregate

- ies,” he added.“We need to foster the chains of integration that will, in turn, produce a more coherent economic growth.”

He also cited the need for corporations in the logistics industry to help micro, small and me- Effective logistics development benefits business in many ways.