Robert Young, Philexport’s trustee for textile, yarn, and fabric, made a call in a press release to lower the costs of doing business and increase competitiveness.
The PEDP provides support to exporters for the infrastructure they need, like power, transportation and logistics.
Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. has recently urged the implementation of immediate strategies within the Philippine Export development Plan 2023-2028 in order to save domestic apparel industries amid global trends of onshoring or reshoring.
According to a senior official from the Confederation, it’s important to boost business competitiveness and reduce costs.
“The new digital and robotics manufacturing that will play a significant role in the reduction of labour cost is also part of the plan,” Young was quoted as saying by a domestic news outlet.
Young noted how global events, such as the Russian-Ukrainian war and the Pandemic of 1918, the dependency on Asia, the direction for apparel imports, and the reliance on Asia are all transforming the clothing and textiles sector. Young is the President of the Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines.
The plans for reshored or onshore manufacturing may result in an imminent closing of the clothing manufacturing industry and related industries, as well as the mass displacement of workers in apparel.
“Philippine market share for the sector is one-tenth of one per cent of an annual global market size of $995 billion trade value,” the PEDP stated.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk