CEBU CITY -- With the completion of a national game plan for ASEAN integration, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is encouraging regional government and business leaders to localize the plan and craft their own regional industry road maps.
Trade Undersecretary Zenaida C. Maglaya said existing industry clusters in each region are encouraged to look at the national game plan and check how they can relate to it.
“There are peculiarities in each region. You cannot just give the plan to them and ask them to implement it. They have to see whether the plan applies to them. One thing good about bringing it down is that there will be buy-in by the private sector. Eventually, they will own the plan. It will become their regional plan,” she said in a press conference on the sidelines of a forum here on the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Economic Community (AEC) game plan.
The AEC game plan consists of industry road maps that the private sector, with the assistance of government agencies, crafted. As of Monday, Trade Assistant Secretary Rafaelita M. Aldaba said 30 sectors have completed national road maps and submitted these to the Board of Investments while 22 others, including those which are still undergoing rapid industry assessment, are working on theirs.
Of the 22 sectors, the road maps for jewelry, bamboo, coco coir, creative industries and gold are in the final stages of development.
These road maps form the building blocks of the Manufacturing Industry Roadmap, which serves as the blueprint for the Manufacturing Resurgence Program, as well as the Comprehensive National Industrial Strategy.
In Central Visayas, DTI Regional Director Asteria C. Caberte said that the agency has created technical working groups for the information and communications technology, human resources, agriculture, tourism, retail, furniture, and creative sectors.
Some of the road maps were crafted and funded solely by the private sector while others were drawn up with the assistance of the government and foreign funds.
Among the strong industry sectors that funded their road-mapping activities was the furniture sector, Ms. Maglaya said. Other sectors, such as the auto parts and IC design sectors, are getting assistance from the EU-Philippines Trade Related Technical Assistance Project.
In her keynote speech during the forum, Ms. Maglaya said most of the industry sectors have realized “that they really have to go big because the market is getting bigger. They cannot work as individuals, they need the industry. When orders come and one company alone cannot meet it, that company will lose the order,” she said.
The AEC aims to establish a single market and production base with free movement of goods, services and investments across the 10 ASEAN member countries by end-2015. Tariffs on 99.6% of products traded within the region have already been eliminated.
The Philippines, for its part, has 439 policy commitments such as the adoption of open skies, trade facilitation and passage of a competition law, among others.
source: Businessworld
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