FILIPINO furniture manufacturers are proposing a furniture resource portal to facilitate and increase intra-trade in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region over the next two years.

This, as the local furniture industry, led by the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP), will assume a two-year chairmanship of the Asean Furniture Industries Council (AFIC) effective January 2019.

To boost intra-Asean trade, CFIP executive director Salvio Valenzuela said the conversion of the current website to become a resource portal for the member companies in the Asean region is among the strategic programs his group presented during an AFIC meeting in China last month.

The Philippines has notably increased its intra-Asean trade in 2017 by seven percent from the $14.5 million level in 2016. Imports of furniture products from the region have also increased by four percent last year from the $24 million level.

Valenzuela said other strategic programs include the need to prioritize trade missions in Southeast Asian countries, as well as strengthen the support group by empowering the third generation owners of the region through the Asean youth program and by creating the executive directors’ circle. The CFIP is also pushing for holding of more business matching and collaboration. (Philexport News and Features)