(The Philippine Star) | Updated May 21, 2014 -
12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The private
sector and the government should work together to strengthen the country’s
competitiveness in preparation for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) next
year, Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo noted in the recent AEC
Forum: Converging towards an AEC Game Plan.
Domingo said in the forum that both
public and private sectors should work together in taking full advantage of the
foreseen integration and to capitalize on it in pursuit of inclusive growth.
“The ball is in our court, so to
speak. And we need to level up our game, intensify our strategic initiatives,
and adopt a unified approach,” Domingo said.
Domingo said that the country is well
prepared to join the AEC by the end of 2015. He said that 99.65 percent of
commodities traded within the largest ASEAN economies—namely Brunei Darussalam,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand—have been
implementing zero duties since January 2010.
The services sector is also poised for
even greater integration, with 80 of the 128 services sectors have already been
liberalized. Domingo believes that this is vital in successfully realizing the
objectives of the AEC, as increased competitiveness relies on the free flow of
labor and investments within the ASEAN.
To this end, government seeks to
further enhance the country’s competitiveness through policy and program
initiatives that strengthen our local industries. This endeavor is based on the
strengthened partnership of government and the private sector. Areas covered by
these initiatives: simplifying government transactions; ensuring transparency
in bidding of government projects; developing industry roadmaps; fixing tariff
distortions; enhancing infrastructure development; and focusing on education and
skills training of the Filipino workforce, the backbone of the national
economy.
Domingo added that government is also
reviewing its tax regime to make the country even more competitive. The
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has been benchmarking the country’s tax
structure against other ASEAN members, according to Domingo. He said that
taxation in a country significantly affects investment decisions.
Domingo is confident that the country
will come out ahead in the AEC; after all the Philippines enjoys a unique
advantage over its neighbors—with an English-speaking, educated, capable and
loyal workforce determined to contribute to our country’s development. Business
groups, for their part, urged Congress to speed up the crafting of a
Competition Law that would prevent anti-competitive business practices, abuse
of market power, and anti-competitive mergers and other unfair trade practices;
the end-goal: to strengthen local businesses of the integrated economies in the
ASEAN region by next year.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (PCCI), on the other hand, said that a strong law on fair competition
serves as the best defense of local businesses amid the influx of cheap
commodities in the region. Such a law provides protection to investments
flowing into the country. PCCI president Alfredo Yao said, in a
seminar-workshop on competition policy and law, that the Competition Law will
promote a more open environment for investments and will level the playing
field for new entrants and current investors wishing to expand or diversify
their investments in the domestic market.
He also noted that, “We hope that when
Congress goes back to work for its May 5 to June 13 session, the 16th Congress
would give top priority to approving competition bills now pending before it.”
In the Senate and the House of
Representative, the pending bills have gone through the respective first
reading stages, and are now in the public hearing and consultation stages. Guiding the bills through the various
legislatives stages are Senator Bam Aquino in the upper house, and Congressman
Mark Villar in the lower house.
The country’s economic resurgence and
its evolving role as a pillar of growth in the AEC will be the main focus of
the World Economic Forum on East Asia. The forum, which will be held from May
21 to 23 in Manila, will have dedicated sessions on the East Asia economic
outlook and on the acceleration of trade liberalization for ASEAN economic
development.
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