The National Economic and Development Authority expects that the implementation of the recently approved 11th Regular Foreign Investment Negative List (RFINL) will further  grease manufacturing activity in the country over the medium term.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported a Volume of Production Index (VoPI) reading of 4.0 percent and 3.7 percent for Value of Production Index (VaPI) in its Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI) for September 2018.

The results meant the indices have been on positive territory for nine consecutive months.

NEDA also expects the manufacturing sector to sustain its positive growth in the remaining months of the year, supported by strong domestic demand, an optimistic business outlook, and accelerated public investments in infrastructure and social sectors.

“We hope to sustain this growth momentum through the effectivity of the 11th RFINL, which allows increased foreign participation in certain areas and activities. This could help facilitate the expansion of production capacity in the manufacturing sector,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said.

He also noted that foreign participation of up to 100 percent in training centers for short-term high level skills development can ensure sufficiency of skills needed by industries and boost the country’s competitiveness.

“We hope that these specialized institutions can upgrade the industries’ knowledge in robotics, engineering design, and additive manufacturing, among others. This will scale up the local workforce as we get ready to align local manufacturing processes with the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0,” Pernia added.

He said that foreign participation of up to 40 percent in contracts for construction and repair of locally funded public works will help improve public infrastructure projects that promote connectivity.

Pernia added that good infrastructure will support the smooth flow of raw materials and intermediate goods from production to processing areas, and link processing areas to markets.

MISSI is a monthly report that monitors the production, net sales, inventories, and capacity utilization of selected manufacturing establishments to provide flash indicators on the performance of the manufacturing sector.

 

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