Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Exporters' group, Dutch center ink deal to sustain sales, demand
TO SUSTAIN the competitiveness of the local export industry, the Confederation of Philippine exporters (Philexport)-Cebu and the Center for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI) of the Netherlands are set to ink a long-term partnership agreement.
Philexport Cebu made this announcement in their website, which also said that Philexport Cebu president Jay Yuvallos, together with five other trustees and officers as witnesses, met with CBI Netherlands officials to discuss long-term plans to ensure that Philippine exports will maintain their competitive advantage despite experiencing the brunt of the strong peso.
Among the joint projects intended to be implemented during the partnership of Philexport Cebu and CBI are the provision of export consultancy services and trainings to exporters, export diversification and clustering of industries in the Philippines, and making Philexport Cebu as the training hub of CBI in the region.
“The timing is right,” Yuvallos had said, referring to the external and internal factors that badly hit the industry today.
Volatility
Local exporters are currently struggling with the volatility of the local currency— which has made Philippine products more expensive abroad, the weakening in the demand of Philippine exports of the global market, and aggressive moves of other competitive countries, he said.
However, Yuvallos said he expects the program will further increase the chances of local exporters to penetrate the “elusive but fertile” European Union (EU) market, as well as markets in the Northern America region.
Although the EU market has long been a target of most exporters for expansion, stricter requirements and other trading hurdles have discouraged some exporters to penetrate it.
Philexport-Cebu is currently under the three-year BSO Development program of CBI since February 2007.
Objectives
Among the main objectives of BSO Development program are organizational strengthening, improving its strategic network with all its stakeholders, and introduction of more value-added services to its members.
Last Feb. 4, some 40 export consultant-trainees under the Export Marketing Management Training of CBI flew to the Netherlands to become export consultants of Philexport-Cebu’s Virtual Export Training Center (VETC).
After the training, exporters can avail themselves of various export consultancy services to be offered by VETC, like conducting Export Market Research and formulation of their company’s Export Marketing Plan, among others.
Meanwhile, the delegation also visited Frankfurt, Germany for the Ambiente trade fair, which is among the biggest Home Decor exhibition in the world. (MMM)
