DEPARTMENT of Trade and Industry (DTI) Acting Secretary Cristina Roque led the agency in defending its minimal increase in its 2025 budget during the hearing of the Committee on Appropriations at the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024.
The DTI is seeking lawmakers’ approval for its P10.599 billion budget under the National Expenditure Program 2025, which includes an allocation for its three attached corporations.
The programmed budget for the DTI next year is only 2.7 percent higher than its current budget of P10.319 billion under the General Appropriations Act.
For the DTI’s budget next year, P6.384 billion is allotted for the Office of the Secretary (Osec) alone. It accounts for 60 percent of the DTI’s programmed budget for 2025.
“For our 2025 original proposal, our total requested amount is P19.3 billion, only for the DTI-Osec. It excludes the attached agencies,” DTI Assistant Secretary Kristian Ablan said during the budget briefing.
The DTI’s attached agency, Cooperative Development Authority, is getting eight percent of the pie, amounting to P889.42 million.
The Board of Investments, the country’s leading investment promotion agency (IPA), has been allocated P613.34 billion, sharing six percent of the DTI’s 2025 budget.
The allotted budget for the Design Center of the Philippines, in 2025, stood at P172.49 million, P157.81 million for the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines, and P78.82 million for the Philippine Trade Training Center.
The DTI also has automatic appropriations amounting to P302.54 million next year.
For the Osec and attached agencies, the proposed budget is P8.598 billion. This is P40 million less than what these offices are getting this year, which is P8.638 billion, according to the GAA 2024.
Moreover, Roque reported that the country’s exports and investments as of the first half of this year exceeded last year’s level.
Goods and services exports of the country from January to June 2024 increased to USD49.1 billion from USD46.6 billion in the same period in 2023.
For the BOI alone, its investment approvals for the first half of 2024 surged to P1.153 trillion from P699.19 billion last year.
Including another attached IPA, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, the DTI’s IPAs have registered P1.208 billion worth of projects from January to July 2024, with 56,731 jobs expected to be generated from these investments.
The DTI said its follow-through on foreign trips of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is also crucial to lock in their investment commitments to the Chief Executive.
According to the DTI, USD76 billion was committed to the President during his official trips abroad. / PNA