By Gliceria N. Cademia / Trade and Industry Development Specialist Services Division, DTI-EMB
Part One
THE Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) conducted on March 24, an information session and consultative meeting with the construction services sector.
The information session and consultative meeting was held at the DTI-International Building, Sen. Gil J. Puyat Avenue, Makati City.
The EMB is under the Trade and Investments Promotion Group (TIPG), which handles the development and promotion of exports.
The meeting and info session was participated in by the DCCD Engineering Corp., Whessoe Philippines Construction Inc., the Performance Builders and Developers Corp., the Meralco Industrial Engineering Services Corp., Thermaprime Drilling Corp., the Hedron Construction and Development Corp., the Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Co. of Manila Inc., the Philippine Construction Accreditation Board (PCAB), the Philippine Overseas Construction Board (POCB) and Services Division staff of EMB.
The participants were apprised on topics such as trade in services (TIS) in the light of the Asean integration, EMB services, the Regional Interactive Platform for Philippine Exporters, Tradeline Philippines and on an outbound business-matching mission to Dubai.
Trade in services in light of the Asean
MARIA Teresa Loring, chief of the EMB Services Division, differentiated services from TIS and trade in goods as an export commodity. Service is the performance of any duty or work for a business stakeholder or industry counterpart, while TIS refers to the sale and delivery of an intangible product, called a service, by a producer to a consumer.
TIS that takes place between a producer and consumer based in different countries or economies is called international TIS. Before, the international community focused only on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in goods, but with globalization, there is now the so-called General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
Service exporting is different from product exporting, where a product is shipped out of the country. In construction, the design or drawing sent through e-mail abroad qualifies as a service export. Loring discussed four modes of supply in services: cross-border supply, which includes any goods or services being transmitted online; consumption abroad, which includes foreign students studying in the Philippines and tourist and foreigners awaiting services in the country; commercial presence, which involves investment in another country and establishing a satellite office or marketing office anywhere in the world; and movement of natural persons, which includes people doing a certain activity for a specific period in a company based in another country.
At present, the Philippines is the world’s leading information-technology-business-process management (IT-BMP) provider, specifically voice-centric activities.
To be continued