DTI Sights Manufacturing Industry as a Tool for Economic Revival
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) stated that it will focus its efforts on manufacturing to help the Philippine economy recover and reduce dependence on international imports.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses to halt or adjust their operations to follow social-distancing and work from home schemes along with the quarantine regulations of the government, greatly affecting the performance of the Philippine economy.
DTI Trade Secretary, Ramon Lopez, stated that their economic revival program encourages manufacturing businesses to adapt to modernization.
Manufacturing is one of the key drivers in the Philippine economy, comprising more than half of its industrial sector and holding a high employment rate relative to its services and agricultural sectors.
In an interview, Lopez stated, “We’re still looking at modernizing and continuing with an integrated industrialization strategy. [Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises] are part of that integrated, industrial capacity that we are trying to build.”
He added, “The more we have the capacity, the more we will have to supply local demand.”
For DTI, the goal is to utilize the manufacturing industry and improve its ability to produce high-value goods and services to eliminate the need for imports overseas.
The government will focus its efforts on strengthening the preference of domestic goods through campaigns that encourage Filipino consumers to buy locally-produced products to accelerate the country’s investments in necessities such as healthcare, infrastructure, transportation, and smart manufacturing.
