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Saturday, July 29, 2006
CV exports climb 12% in Jan-March, hit $1B
Central Visayas exports grew 12 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 7.
DTI 7 data said total exports for the quarter increased to P1.1 billion compared to last year’s P998 million.
Cebu exports account for more than 95 percent of the total figure, because majority of exporters are based here.
According to data provided by the Confederation of Philippine Exporters Foundation (Cebu) Inc. (Philexport), the top exporters in the region are Cebu Mitsumi Inc. in Danao City, Lexmark Int’l. Philippines Inc., NEC Telecom Software Philippines Inc., Muramoto Audio Visual Philippines., Taiyo Yuden Philippines, Shemberg Marketing Corp., Metro Wear, Integrated Microelectronics, and Olympus Optical Technology Philippines Inc.
Despite the challenges posed by expensive wage, high power cost, and defective infrastructure, Cebu’s performance in terms of exports is still significant, said Ernesto Abines Jr. of Philexport-Cebu.
Industry
He said the growth in exports is because Cebu is “more industrialized and we took advantage of international ports.”
Abines said the potential for more growth will be found in the services sector, which include call centers and business process outsourcing businesses.
“The government should take care of the IT (information technology) industry and its sustainability,” he added.
According to the Phil-export-Cebu website, Cebu’s annual export sales averaged at $2.95 billion in the last seven years (1998 to 2005). It contributes about 10 percent to the total export output of the whole country.
Cebu’s export sales growth also averaged 10 percent in the last five years from $2.1 billion in 1998 to $4.7 billion in 2005.
For this year’s first quarter, electronics remained the top export product in the region, accounting for 38.61 percent of total exports in from January to March this year.
Electrical equipment, other industrial goods, garments, furniture, steel/metal products, IT and IT-enabled services, vehicles and machinery parts, marine products and fashion accessories make up the top 10 list of export products.
Furniture
Abines said that among the products exported, the need to concentrate on the development of the furniture manufacturing sector is “a must” since most raw materials are found in the country and because it has “grassroots effects.”
Japan was the top market for Central Visayas exports, cornering 41.64 percent. It is followed by the United States with 12.12 percent, Hong Kong with 6.15 percent, China with 3.64 percent, the Netherlands with 3.43 percent, Hungary with 2.16 percent, Singapore with 1.57 percent, United Kingdom (1.56 percent), Taiwan (1.33 percent) and Korea (1.04 percent). (MMM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 29, 2006 issue)
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