Government to revive Industry Development Council by 2014
July 5, 2013 at 11:29
The national government aims to have the Industry Development Council (IDC) up and running by the first quarter of 2014, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
In her presentation at a forum on Friday, DTI Industrial Policy Department Industry Development Group Director Ma. Corazon Halili-Dichosa said the revival of the IDC is one of the major plans of the DTI to improve the country’s competitiveness in manufacturing.
Dichosa said the revival of the IDC will complement the government’s goals to help the motor vehicles/auto parts, apparel, footwear, travel goods, and consumer electronics sectors recover.
She said the DTI also aims to revisit backbone sectors such as the iron and steel, petrochemical, copper-based finished products and chemical sectors.
This plan will also be complemented by the aim of the DTI to develop new revenue streams particularly in the creative industries and mineral-processing sectors.
Further, Dichosa said the DTI aims to sustain the growth in major revenue streams such as electronic services or the information technology-business-process outsourcing sector, semiconductors and shipbuilding, as well as pursue countryside growth.
Countryside growth, she explained, means focusing on agriculture-based industries, fishery, tourism and infrastructure sectors. These are the same sectors that the Aquino administration intends to prioritize because of their labor-intensive nature.
Dichosa also said the revival of the IDC will complement the various industry road maps that the DTI and members of the industry sector will be launching in the second week of July this year.
Once the road maps are launched on July 16, the DTI intends to conduct inception workshops and brown bag sessions to discuss the contents of the various road maps.
To date, there are 20 road maps under manufacturing and three under various sectors. The 20 manufacturing roadmaps include those for rubber, petrochemicals, motorcycle, motorcycle parts, bamboo, furniture, paper, plastics, creative industry and ceramic tiles, among others.
The three other road maps that were created are for mass housing, air cargo logistics and information technology and business-process management.
Dichosa also said road maps are being created for shipbuilding, electronics, mining, food processing, marine processing, aerospace, medical travel, garments and textile. A separate Manufacturing Industry Road Map and Comprehensive National Industrial Strategy are being crafted.
The road maps will help boost the manufacturing sector’s growth, which has been on the decline in the past 30 years.
Based on an ongoing study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies Acting Vice President Rafaelita Aldaba, the share of manufacturing to the country’s Gross Domestic Product has declined to 4.1 percent in the 2000s from 5.9 percent in the 1970s.
Aldaba also stated that manufacturing’s share to employment declined to 9.1 percent in the 2000s from 11.3 percent in the 1970s. Further, she said the number of manufacturing groups that had Revealed Comparative Advantage declined to two in the 2000s from six in the 1970s.
The IDC was initially formed under the Ramos administration. It was tasked to create a national industrialization strategy to boost the manufacturing sector’s growth.
Apart from the DTI, the IDC is also composed of the National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Finance, Department of Science and Technology and private-sector representatives.
