The Trade Department launched Tuesday the Comprehensive National Industry Strategy, a program the will link the manufacturing sector with agricultural and services to create a globally competitive supply chain for Philippine products.
Trade Secretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. said the CNIS would initially focus on manufacturing, infrastructure and logistics, tourism, information technology-business process management and agribusiness.
“While the growth in agriculture has been quite challenging in the past years and growth in services has been limited to a few sectors, we should be able to lift these sectors—with agriculture as source of inputs and services as the enabling element—to support broad-based and sustained growth in manufacturing,” he said during the launch of CNIS at the Crowne Hotel in the Ortigas business district.
He said forward and backward linkages would be strengthened, while supply chain gaps would be addressed and the industries’ participation in the global and regional value chains deepened.
The CNIS involves human resource development, SME development, innovation and R&D activities, green industries, aggressive promotion and marketing programs, infrastructure investments to address the high cost of power, logistics and shipping, and streamlining and automation of government procedures and regulations affecting business operations.
Cristobal noted that through the strategic actions, the government could create an enabling environment that would allow industries to further develop, become globally competitive and seize the opportunities of an integrated regional economy.
“Eventually, we would like to see a Philippine manufacturing sector that is inclusive, with micro, small, and medium enterprises at the front and center of the Philippine business activities; a manufacturing sector that is likewise expansive to conquer not just the local markets but also strategic markets beyond our borders,” he said.
“This we believe is the path that HSBC considered when it predicted in its earlier study that the Philippines would be the 16th largest economy in the world by 2050,” he said.
Cristobal cited the benefits of having a young workforce and the need to ensure that young people had the right skills and that the government would be able to generate the jobs for them.
The Trade Department is focusing on strengthening partnerships necessary to develop talent and skills capacity to support local industries with partner-agencies—the Science Department through the Metals Industries Research and Development Council and the Labor Department through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.