• DTI hikes manufacturing growth forecast

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is raising its target for the growth of the manufacturing sector starting next year given the continued resurgence being experienced by the industry.

“We’re seeing the resurgence of manufacturing so we need to push it further. What we are seeing is hopefully a growth of over 10 percent by next year and then after that 11 percent,” Lopez said in an interview yesterday on the sidelines of the 2017 Manufacturing Summit.

The DTI had earlier set a manufacturing sector growth target of between eight to 10 percent annually until the end of the Duterte administration.

“The Philippines is now on the verge of economic transformation. While services was the main driver of growth in the past decades, manu- facturing has been contributing more substantially to the nation’s economic growth since 2013,” Lopez said.

“Consider this: from 1999 to 2012, services registered an average annual growth of 5.4 percent, while manufacturing was growing at an average of four percent. But from 2013 to 2016, the average third quarter growth of manufacturing stood at 7.8 percent, while services posted an average of 6.8 percent,” he said.

In the third quarter of 2017, Lopez said the manufacturing industry further expanded by 9.4 percent and increased its share to the gross domestic product by 22.4 percent.

The DTI remains confident the sector would continue to outperform its Southeast Asian neighbor countries given the rosy business conditions in the country, coupled with sound economic fundamentals and industrial policies and programs.

The country’s manufacturing sector growth, according to the agency, was one of the fastest in the region during the third quarter, outpacing that of China (6.8 percent), Malaysia (5.8 percent) and Singapore (4.6 percent).

“The department remains relentless in its efforts to revive factories, expand production, generate employment, and enable the industry to provide the catalyst that will build the seamless link between a productive agriculture and a strong services sector Lopez said.

To attain the above 10 percent manufacturing growth, however, Lopez said additional programs and policies should be put in place.

For one, the agency has formulated a new industrial policy known as Inclusive Innovation Industrial Strategy (i3S). i3S aims at growing innovative and globally competitive manufacturing, agriculture and services, while strengthening linkages into domestic and global value chains.

“With innovation at the front and center of the country’s strategic policies and programs, industries would be in a better position to face competition in both domestic and export markets. With accompanying measures to improve capacity to penetrate export markets, industries could take advantage of increasing returns to scale and market access opportunities, especially those arising from free trade agreements and increasing regional integration in the ASEAN Economic Community,” Lopez said.