The government shall pursue market access through effective bilateral, multilateral and regional engagements and representation, and maximize opportunities offered by existing trade agreements. The government commits to engage all possible stakeholders in undertaking proactive participation in international engagements geared at keeping the country in the radar screen of international business. This initiative will particularly benefit and maximize trading potential of MSMEs.
Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) contribute to the competitiveness of Philippine export products and services. The low utilization rate of these agreements in the country shows the need to conduct the orientation and capacity-building workshops for manufacturers, enterprises, and service providers to enhance their capability to avail themselves of the benefits of these PTAs. The government shall therefore initiate the following programs and activities:
• International trade strategy
The government shall pursue the following programs to complement its international trade strategies and provide more opportunities for market access: (1) National Single Window will be opened to improve trade facilitations and logistics; (2) support shall be afforded to infrastructure and quality of trade facilitations to improve the efficiency of logistics services; (3) to further assist MSMEs integrate into global production networks, government shall formulate and implement an industrial strategy, as well as enhance SMEs' capabilities; and (4) the negotiation process shall be reviewed and enhanced through reforms of trade policies, the formulation of a negotiation process, and capacity building of the Trade Related Matters (TRM) Committee, and trade-negotiators. Best-practice models shall be adopted for trade analysis to get more robust cost-benefit analyses of proposed measures and reforms.
• Economic diplomacy and consular commercial and economic representation overseas
The coming years will see the redefinition of globalization, as the global economic system continues to integrate with the domestic economy.
The government will therefore: (1) maintain and safeguard economic security in multilateral, regional, and bilateral economic engagements; (2) maintain and safeguard national and economic security through strategic partnerships within the Asian region to ensure that Philippine foreign policy decisions are taken in the context of Asian Regionalism and Asian Community; (3) continuously evaluate multilateralism and the stability of international organizations; and (4) work to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets by 2015 and reduce poverty through intensified international cooperation.
In line with the ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan and the Multilateral Agreement on Full Implementation of Passenger Air Services, greater collaboration will be undertaken to realize the potential of the ASEAN region as a source market for tourism. In addition, tour programs shall be developed through twinning and dual destination with other ASEAN countries, attracting more international tourists and foreign direct investments in tourism.
To inform the public including private industries/firms engaged and/or potentially capable to trade outside the country, the government will continue its information, education and communication campaigns on PTAs. The information campaign sessions will be conducted in 12 key cities nationwide to cover discussions of the benefits of the agreements as well as administrative procedures for availment. The sessions will also feature businesses, which have so far benefited from a PTA to entice and encourage others to leverage said agreements to their advantage. Using mass and digital media as a tool, each information session will be supported by campaigns such as press releases and radio and television coverage.