| First P200 million of P1B export support fund committed to 29 industry projects |
| Monday, 24 August 2009 | |
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The first tranche of P200 million out of the P1 billion support fund
transferred earlier by the Department of Budget Management (DBM) to the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to help the battered export
sector survive the global trade slump has been practically committed to
industry projects. This was reported yesterday by the Export Development Council (EDC) which said that a total of eleven projects worth P139 million have been approved by the screening and approval committees of the EDC, the quasi-government body that oversees Export Development Council. Another 18 projects only needs slight revisions to get the nod of the council, Senen Perlada, EDC executive director and export promotions chief, told the PHILEXPORT News and Features. With 29 projects already in the pipeline, the P200 initial release from the DBM is expected to be disbursed soon. Another tranche from the P1 billion committed by President Arroyo when she approved the 2009-2010 export plan will have to be sought from the DBM. When the DBM released the initial grant, the EDC was given specific instruction to commit them to projects no longer limited to export promotions activities but to other development projects that include common service facilities, setting up of permanent display centers and compliance with old and new quality and safety standards required by importing countries. The EDC secretariat said the submission of new projects has continued while screening and approval by the different committees have been fast tracked. At the rate the projects are getting processed, the P1 billion grant is expected to be committed to site-specific or industry-specific projects even before the year ends. The slower pace of processing the actual release of funds to project proponents had however allowed that actual plowing of the money into specific projects may happen up to the end of next year. The grant, when initially put together by the EDC in late 2007, was called export promotions fund (EPF) contributed by five government agencies plus PHILEXPORT. This was recently renamed as Export Support Fund (ESF) with its scope expanded from purely marketing efforts to long-term development projects calculated to bolster the competitiveness of export industries, timed when the entire industry found itself the hardest hit segment of the economy by the global recession and trade slump. -- Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and Features |
