“There are moves to upscale our IT-BPM sector. There are challenges for the Philippines’s export growth. It is more risky. There are policy threats in major markets. There are constraints in what we’re doing in the negotiations in free-trade agreements, and there are technological breakdowns that we have to look at. The IT-BPM sector is not shielded from this, and we have to find ways to have more value-added IT-BPM that will make the services sector more relevant and productive for our economy,” DTI-EMB Director Senen M. Perlada said.

The DTI-EMB is working on the country’s exports to balance the trade and be able to address the growing trade deficit with the second-largest economy in the world. This November, the Philippines will participate at the China International Import Expo (CIIE), China’s biggest import exposition, that would give the Philippines the opportunity to sell to the consumer market in China.

The DTI-EMB pushes for wearables, furniture and furnishings, and gifts, décor and houseware as well as agricultural products, such as bananas, mangoes, papayas and pineapples.

“Because of the newfound wealth in China, a lot of consumers really want to try something that they would like to import from abroad. The CIIE will be the best platform for us to start doing that,” Perlada said.

He noted the DTI is strengthening the efforts of the country’s e-commerce sector to facilitate its participation in China’s huge e-commerce market.

“We have to address our suppliability. We have capacities for manufactured exports like electronics but, when it comes to fresh and processed foods, our difficulty is to have the quantity the market can absorb from us,” Perlada added.