Trade secretary paints rosy picture of 2012 economy

The outlook for Philippine economic performance remains optimistic with improved competitiveness seen this year.

This is what Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory L. Domingo told a forum in Cebu last week.

According to Domingo, while most economists expect gross domestic product to increase by 4.5 percent this year, DTI expects to see an increase between 7 and 7.6 percent this year.

“We are that optimistic, and I should say that we at DTI know more,  especially those that are really happening on the ground,” said Domingo.

According to Domingo, economic drivers this year will still be the outsourcing industry, real estate, remittances from overseas Filipino workers and tourism.

“The outsourcing industry will continue to be strong despite the (anti-outsourcing) bill in the US. We are seeing a lot of interests still from foreign investors,” said Domingo.

According to Domingo, there is an increase in the number of companies offering nonvoice services that are showing interest in setting up offices in the country, especially in Cebu.

According to Domingo, they expect an increase of 20 percent in direct employment from the outsourcing industry this year.

“Last year we grew by 25 percent,  closing the year with 640,000 employees from only 570,000 in 2010. This year we expect additional 100,000 direct jobs generated by the outsourcing industry,” said Domingo.

The export industry is also expected to recover, albeit slowly, this year, said Domingo.

“Economies in our major markets have shown some improvements. Greece has already implemented some reforms that are expected to improve their economy. The United States of America is showing a stronger economy as well,” said Domingo.

Philexport executive director Fred Escalona agreed, saying industry players are very optimistic this year.

“Aside from the major markets, we are also seeing a lot of other new markets like China,” said Escalona, adding that a lot of the optimism is coming from the furniture sector.

According to Domingo, the Philippines export industry is slowly shifting from being mostly focused on electronics products.

“Last year, electronic products made up only 50 percent of our total exports and other non-electronics high-value products have slowly increased,” said Domingo.

This is a good shift, he said, as it allows more diverse high-value products to replace electronics, which is easily affected by any economic difficulty in the world market.

There’s an expected increase in activity in the real estate industry, especially with the Department of Public Works and Highways already investing 70 percent of their budget this year.

Domingo was referring to DPWH infrastructure projects already having allocations with work in most of the projects already being started.

“We expect these projects to stir more economic activities, create more jobs and complement other industries,” said Domingo.

Tourism will continue to rise this year according to Domingo with an increased target of 10 million foreign tourists and 35 million domestic travellers by 2016.

“Last year we had 3.9 million tourists and we expect the industry to remain strong this year.”

Foreign direct investments increased last year by 30 percent with 22 percent locating in economic zones.

“Based on a survey by Japan External Trade Organization on competitiveness on Asian countries, Philippines emerged on top among others, which we see will open up more opportunities for us,” said Domingo.

Domingo said that there has been an increase in inbound investment missions from countries that have not visited the Philippines before.

“We had countries like Qatar, Czech Republic, Russia, Turkey, Iran and more missions from Japan already since January this year. That’s a good sign because it means that these countries are already seeing us as a good place for investment,” said Domingo.