Steady export growth in the Philippines’ merchandise and service sectors are among the top “strategic and sustainable advantages” for Qatari investors, an official of the Philippine embassy has said.
The Philippines continues to experience steady export growth, according to Gonaranao Musor, first secretary and consul at the Philippine embassy in Qatar, who spoke during a recent business forum organised by the Asean Community in Doha (ACD) at the Qatar Chamber.
Musor was among those who delivered presentations on the investment climate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which seeks to draw more Qatari investments to its 10-member countries.
Philippine Business Council-Qatar (PBC-Q) chairman Greg Loayon, who was among the participants of the event, said the forum “was an avenue to showcase Asean” as a growth and investment choice for Qatar.
“While each member country presented the merits of doing business with them, for Philippine companies, it widened our views of the opportunities in our country for foreign direct investment and Filipino expatriates and businessmen,” Loayon told Gulf Times.
Under the Investment Priorities Plan 2014, Musor said the top Philippine industries are manufacturing, agribusiness and fishery services, economic and low cost housing, hospitals, energy, public infrastructure and logistics, and public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
On merchandise, Musor said the Philippines exported around $54bn from January to November 2015. “Electronic products remained as the country’s top export with total receipts of $2.774bn, accounting for 54.2% of the total exports revenue in November 2015. Japan remains to be our top export market, followed by the US, and China,” he said.
In terms of services, Musor said the Philippines generated export revenues of $20bn from January to September 2015, up 11.1% over the same period in 2014. “This is anchored on the IT/BPM (Information Technology/Business Process Manufacturing) sector that generated around $18bn, while direct employment reached the 1mn mark last September,” Musor stressed.
As of November 2015, total trade between Qatar and the Philippines stood at $314mn (January-August 2015) compared to $652mn recorded in 2014 and $1.047bn in 2013, said Musor, quoting 2014 international trade data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Musor also said Qatar could benefit from the Philippines “rich talent pool,” which is among the Philippines’ “competitive strengths” as an investment destination.
On infrastructure development, Musor said another advantage for Qatari investors are the 326 operating economic zones composed of 68 manufacturing economic zones, 216 IT Parks/Centres, 21 agro-industrial economic zones, 19 tourism economic zones, and two Medical Tourism Parks/Centres.
Musor emphasised that Qatar could also gain from the Philippines’ geographical location, which he described as a “critical entry point” to the 622mn Asean market, and a “natural gateway” to the East-Asian economies.
“The country is likewise placed at the crossroads of international shipping and airlines. The Asean is an important economic partner of the Philippines, both on the trade and investment fronts. In November 2014, total Philippine exports to Asean amounted to $8.5bn representing 14.9% of the country’s entire exports.
“For investments, the Asean bloc accounted for 19% of the total Philippine-approved investments, with P22bn in 2013, a significant increase of more than 600% from P3bn in 2011,” Musor added.