THE Export Development Council (EDC) is now targeting to submit to Malacañang for approval the new three-year Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) by the middle of the year with six new key challenges being taken into consideration.

Dr. Federico Macaranas, one of the representatives of the National Competitiveness Council in the EDC, identified these challenges as the Asean integration, strengthening of the peso, high cost of commodities, energy security, cost of doing business and brain drain.

Macaranas said these are market-driven issues that will be crucial to the performance of the exporting community in the next three years.

The technical preparation of the PEDP 2008–2010 is being undertaken through a team of technical experts from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), EDC and PhilExport with the assistance from Partnership Advocacy, Competitiveness and Trade and Asian Institute of Management Policy Center.

The Bureau of Export Trade Promotion and the EDC said that the drafting stage of the PEDP 2008–2010 will start after the consultations in the regions.

Upon the finalization of the drafted version, the PEDP 2008–2010 will be presented to President Arroyo for approval by the middle of this year.

The PEDP is a rolling three-year plan that forms part of the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan. It defines the country’s export strategies and programs that will be implemented by the government and the private sector. The first PEDP was the PEDP 1995–998.

Emma Mijares, deputy executive director of the EDC Secretariat, said the regional consultations with the various stakeholders made the formulation stage of the PEDP 2008-2010 distinct from the previous plans.

This, she said, stressed the importance of the “public-private partnership” framework in the plan’s formulation process, the development of more competitor-conscious strategies and the usage of analytical tools such as value chain mapping to address sectoral gaps.

Consultations were already held in Cebu (for the Visayas), Davao (for the Mindanao), San Fernando in Pampanga (for Central Luzon and Northern Luzon), and Manila (for the National Capital Region, Southern Tagalog and Bicol).

The PEDP for 2008-2010, Macaranas said, is taking a closer look into the Philippines’ strengths and weaknesses in relation to the global environment to formulate appropriate market and product strategies; the reassessment of the potential of the revenue streams; the projection of the country’s export growth; and the linkage of PEDP to national competitiveness efforts.

THE unabated increase in oil and food prices has forced the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) to revise its growth targets for the next two years downward, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

THE Export Development Council (EDC) is now targeting to submit to Malacañang for approval the new three-year Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) by the middle of the year with six new key challenges being taken into consideration.

THE national government and the Japanese government are now in the process of creating a medium-term framework that will serve as a blueprint for Japan’s assistance to the Philippines in the next five years, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

THE province of Saskatchewan in Canada will need 10,000 to 12,000 Filipino skilled workers to fill in the increasing demands of its labor market in the next five years, says its top official visiting the Philippines.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has lifted the temporary ban on all imports of domestic and wild birds, along with poultry and its products from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, following official confirmation showing that the avian influenza (AI) virus in the prairie area no longer exists in the last three months.

THE Philippine government expects to save up to $500 million annually from rice imports with the rice self-sufficiency master plan it has rolled out.

PLANT coffee and earn! National Coffee Development Board (NCDB) co-chairperson Pacita Juan advises farmers to go back to planting coffee, the price of which has shot up by nearly 400 percent.

IT”S school time again! Some may be a little sad that the end of summer is fast approaching, while others just can’t wait to go back to school and look forward to new things: social scenes, teachers, classmates and friends.