The government through the Export Development Council (EDC) on Wednesday has approved the revised targets for exports for 2021 and 2022, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez said.
“We have adjusted the export targets taking into consideration impact of pandemic and weaker global demand. Thus, the revised targets are lower than the original targets where export levels were originally projected to reach over $130 billion by 2022,” said Lopez, who is also the EDC chair.
For this year, the EDC eyes export revenues to reach $91.7 billion, or a growth of 12.5 percent.
A big portion is expected from merchandise exports or $54-billion worth of goods overseas, while services was estimated at $37.7 billion.
Export growth in 2022 is eyed at 14.8 percent, targeting $105.3 billion in revenues, of which about $62 billion will come from the export of goods and $43.3 billion from services exports.
“We can consider these targets as fighting targets, after intensive consultations with each export sector and stakeholder and global market prospects per sector. This also means that we shall exert all efforts in terms of policies and support programs to assist the export sector and help them achieve these fighting targets,” Lopez said.
He added that the EDC forecast 2020 export revenues to decline by 13.6 percent to $81.5 billion.
The top trade official sees that the enactment of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) bill into law and other economic reforms pending in Congress along with the “Build, Build, Build” program and other investment and export promotion including digitalization programs will drive investment inflows that will ramp up the country’s export capacities. CURRENTPH
