CCPI presses PHL to diversify growth, build self-sufficient industries

THE Philippines must diversify its growth drivers and use its natural resources to boost its competitiveness in the region, the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands (CCPI) said.

“We don’t want to focus on only one industry, we must be diverse and self-sufficient,” CCPI President Jose Luis U. Yulo, Jr. said during the 15th Arangkada Philippines Forum on Friday.

“That is how the Philippine economy was in the past, and we deviated,” he said.

The Philippines is expected to be one of the slowest-growing economies in developing Southeast Asia this year at 3.3%— behind Vietnam (7.8%), Indonesia (5.2%), Malaysia (4.9%), the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (4%), Timor-Leste (4%) and Cambodia (3.9%), the Asian Development Bank said in its September update.

Mr. Yulo, who heads the Philippines’ oldest business group, noted that the country must reduce its dependence on global supply chains by manufacturing locally using its natural resources.

He said that many of the country’s regional neighbors already have self-reliant manufacturing industries, using natural resources as inputs to their own production-based industries.

In contrast, the Philippines exports its natural resources like raw copper to overseas processing centers, only to import the high-value outputs back at a higher cost.

“That is one of the reasons why we are poor,” he said. “China, Indonesia, our neighbors are already practicing this—whatever natural resources they have, they use it in local factories,” Mr. Yulo said.

As an archipelago, he added that the Philippines must also utilize its aquatic resources to excel in sea-based manufacturing industries.

He also called on the need for reforms in health and education as human capital investments are critical in bolstering growth.

Meanwhile, the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham) called on the government leaders to accelerate critical economic reforms, as these are not moving fast enough to sustain economic resilience.

“The economy is pretty resilient right now and improving as we speak, but we really need sustained high growth,” AmCham Executive Director Ebb Hinchliffe said during the forum.

“Bills become laws, and then the laws are implemented, but we don’t feel \[like\] they’re moving fast enough.” — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz