By Amado P. Macasaet
Not that the export sector should not be pushed. But at this time the value of merchandise exports pale in comparison with what the estimated 10 million Filipinos doing mean jobs remit to their families.
It has not occurred to anybody in the government or in the private sector to find out the net value of merchandise exports. The necessity comes from the fact there is a ratio between locally made products used in exports and the imported components.
We have to know the value of the components from abroad so we may come up with a plan which group in the manufacturing sector contributes the biggest value because it has the least imported components
Our first attempt at boosting export capabilities happened when the government adopted the import substitution program.
Nothing much came of it as shown by the fact that the manufacturing export sector continues to produce goods with imported components.
The “Filipino First” economic policy of President Carlos P. Garcia did not do much to e encourage consumption of locally made goods. Apart from the lack of income, the preference for imported products is encouraged by their quality.
In that sense President Carcia’s policy was a near flop but it was a good political strategy.
Clearly for the love of the Filipino, President Magsaysay caused the enactment of a law nationalizing the retail trade. The Chinese, especially those from Xiamen were driven out of the retail business. Successful retailing is an art that came out of necessity from the Chinese from Xiamen.
It took decades before we came to grips with the reality that an open economy does not impose restrictions The success of retailing is for everybody to see. The Filipinos learn a lot from foreign retailers.
The better sense is to find out where we are good at. We have not found a reliable one up to this time. We were probably lulled into complacency by high tariff duties.
Worse, the sugar industry became a major dollar earner as a result of the preferential price of sugar in the US market as so required by the Laurel Langley Agreement.
We sound like a broken record saying this too often. We hope to make our leaders realize subsidy and special bilateral trade agreement is not a boon. It is a bane.
The coconut industry used to be one of the main sources of foreign exchange. The Philippines was one of the largest exporters of copra and coconut oil. We were competing with Brazil in sugar.
The country made oodles of money exporting logs to Japan in the time of President Diosdado Macapagal. We woke up to the necessity of coming up with a wood processing program. The program did not fly. But the forest steadily lost the trees.
These are in the agricultural sector.
We could have realized an estimated 20 times in additional value if we had not practically idled and eventually junked the Coconut Chemical Corp. set up by the group of Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.
About 20 different kinds of non-fossil chemicals could have been produced from coconut oil. The foreign market was hungry for them because they are environment friendly.
What we see in Batangas is a big heap of junk that was the former Cocochem.
Since we have not discovered the most competitive sector in manufacturing for export, there might be a necessity of developing internal strength. We do not know what it is. But there must be one or a few.
The only identifiable one is exporting warm Filipino bodies.
As frequently mentioned, the dollars the economy earn from OFWs have no costs except modest placement fees although so-called direct hiring has no cost at all. In fact, even plane fare is paid by the employer.
The supporters of the anti-RH Law will say the country would never be able to earn more than $85 billion that is now the present size of gross international reserves if we controlled fertility rate. But if we had say, only 50 million people there would be enough jobs for everyone who is of working age.
The other advantage of having a bloated population is the presumption of expanded demand. Unfortunately, the economy is made poorer by the same bloated population which does not have incomes to push demand.
Again, we will say the solution might well be in supporting the small man find a business. If he does not create jobs beyond the members of his family, he is able to support himself.
The small man may well be the source of internal strength. He will create bigger demand because he has an income.
We have seen how manufactured exports failed to increase the supply of dollars.
We would not need that many dollars if we do not have to import the food that we eat.
It seems we really have not found our bearings in trying to develop the economy on a sustained basis. In fairness, however, we take our hats off to President Aquino for the growth of the economy which, not strangely, is largely confined to the financial sector, not in manufacturing for local consumption least of all for export.
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email:amadomacasaet@yahoo.com
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