The Department of Trade and Industry sees the need to diversify the country’s export basket and strengthen other export sectors, following an 18.1-percent drop in merchandise exports to $5.1 billion in February from $6.2 billion a year ago,
It said the cooling down of global demand for electronic products influenced the performance of Philippine merchandise exports in February. Electronics, the country’s biggest export product, accounts for 52.7 percent of total exports.
“Investments play a key role in developing Philippine capabilities to produce and export more of higher-value products. We will focus on investment attraction and industry development in sectors where we have established capabilities that can serve as a solid foundation for export growth and are well-positioned to seize opportunities in emerging trends,” said Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual.
He said exporters were expecting the declining trend to be temporary as global investments in semiconductor manufacturing were increasing significantly. “Thus we need to position the Philippines to take a greater share of this increasingly important global value chain,” he said.