“The restrictions on the economy will be needed to make more investments to come and to develop labor-intensive industries such as manufacturing, agriculture and tourism shall be pursued.” President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday in his State of the Nation Address.
A group of local Filipino manufacturers was among those who lauded the first State of the Nation Address by President Rodrigo Duterte particularly his promise to develop the industry sector.
The Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) says giving focus on the industry sector would help improve the economy.
Jess aranza of the FPI says the manufacturing sector in particular creates more quality jobs than the services sector.
Economists believe providing a lot of quality jobs result in equal distribution of wealth.
“We benefit more from this sector. And when you bring the manufacturing sector to other areas where there are raw materials, you create employment to those areas. You also ease the traffic concentated on cities. Then you’ll have a balanced and equitable distirbution of wealth,” Aranza said on a phone interview.
Aranza also says that his group would recommend to the President the creation of an industry department that would separate it from the current DTI.
He explains having a separate department for the industry sector would be beneficial for its growth.
“The trade department is focused on importation of finished products. But the industry, the manufacturing produces finished products. The trade wants lower tariff of finished products. But the industry wants higher tariff to protect its products. These two are in conflict,” Aranza explained further.
The IBON Foundation, however, observes that until now, Duterte’s plans to industrialize the economy remains unclear.
“What is lacking is that you must have that industrialization plan and all the rest of the macroeconomic indicator or social should be attuned to that plan,” IBON Foundation Research Head Rosario Guzman said.
(DARLENE BASINGAN/UNTV NEWS & RESCUE)
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