PHL agri imports hit $19.3B in 2022 on robust food buys

By Raadee S. Sausa

BSP-Jica. . .

Continued from A1 tal value of agricultural imports from Asean member countries in 2022,” the PSA said.

Data from the agency also showed that the European Union supplied $1.87 billion worth of goods to the Philippines last year, or 21.8 percent of the total import bill. Among the EU member countries, Spain was the country’s top supplier of agricultural commodities with an import value of $458.25 million or a share of 24.5 percent to the country’s total value of agricultural imports from the EU.

Bad habit

in accessing financing. Medalla said the problems of the SME sector have been compounded by “bad policies” such as mandating banks to lend to them, leading to “one-size-fits-all” solutions that do not work.

“[Even small foreign banks in] the Philippines are being told to lend to MSMEs and agriculture. And most of them end up saying we must just pay fines. It’s a terrible thing. It’s a tax on foreign investors who want to help the economy. [It’s a] one-size-fits-all policy,” Medalla said in his speech.

“Another terrible example is rural banks are being penalized for not lending enough to MSMEs when in fact, some medium-scale industries are bigger than some rural banks. So you can see that good intentions lead to bad policies,” he added.

As with any registration requirement, he said many SIM card holders have apparently procrastinated in complying with Republic Act (RA) No. 11934 or the SIM Registration Act.

“For several months we were only registering about 100,000 SIM card registrants, but in the last two weeks we [have been] registering more than a million SIM card registration per day. That goes to show the issue is not really limited ID or anything, it is just the bad habit of delaying to the last minute the compliance with the law,” Uy explained.

Currently, there are already 82 million registered SIM cards, according to Uy.

Another 15 million to 20 million are expected to be registered during the 90-day extended registration period.

“The remaining 50 million [unregistered SIM cards] are the ones that are disposable, so to speak, and used for scamming or telemarketing,” Uy said.

PSA data showed that among the major commodities imported by the country last year, cereals accounted for the largest share of import bill at $3.98 billion or 20.6 percent of the total.

Residues and waste from the food industries, meat and edible meat offal, animal or vegetable fats and oils, and miscellaneous edible preparations were the other major food imports of the country last year.

“The top 10 commodity groups in terms of value of agricultural imports was valued at $16.67 billion or 86.3 percent of the total agricultural imports’ revenue in 2022. Moreover, the combined agricultural import value of these top 10 commodity groups posted an annual increment of 25.2 percent during the year,” the PSA said.

Countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were from the Philippines’s top source of food imports last year. The PSA said agricultural imports from Asian member countries amounted to $6.47 billion or 16.1 percent of the country’s total imports.

“In terms of value, Indonesia was the major supplier of agricultural products to the Philippines among Asean member countries, contributing $1.78 billion or 27.6 percent of the country’s to -

As agricultural imports continued to outpace exports in 2022, the farm trade deficit last year widened by 32.8 percent to $11.8 billion, from the $8.88 billion registered in 2021.

PSA data showed that receipts from agricultural exports grew by 10 percent to nearly $7.5 billion last year. The top 10 commodity groups in terms of value of agricultural exports contributed $7.25 billion or 96.7 percent of the total agricultural exports’ revenue in 2022.

The combined agricultural export value of these top 10 commodity groups posted an annual increment of 11.7 percent during the year, according to the agency.

However, some of these challenges can be addressed through the CRD. According to the BSP, the database created through the CRD project, which has been extended by Jica to March 2024, can be used by banks to construct a credit-scoring model for SME borrowers.

Deputy Governor Bernadette RomuloPuyat said the CRD was crafted by a team composed of the CRD Japan Expert Team and BSP’s CRD Project Implementation Unit which carried out data collection, credit scoring model development and validation, knowledge and technology transfer, and framework development.

The CRD Project was launched virtually in December 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. It started with 17 participating banks and has since expanded to 32 rural and universal and commercial banks.

“Today we have reached a milestone in our financial inclusion agenda. As such, let us celebrate the success of our efforts over the past three years in rolling out the CRD project, as we look forward to the future that we all envision: a vibrant SME sector fueled by an effective and inclusive access to legitimate and affordable credit,” Puyat said.

Puyat noted micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) make up 99.6 percent of business establishments in the country.

It also provides 64.7 percent of employment to the country’s workforce and contributes about 35.7 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The 32 rural and universal and commercial banks include 1st Valley Bank; AllBank; Asia United Bank, BK Private Development Bank; Bangko ng Kabuhayan; BOF rural bank; Camalig Bank; BPI; Cbs; Card SME Bank; Development Bank of the Philippines; First Consolidated Bank; Land Bank of the Philippines; Lipa Bank; Malayan Savings Bank; Metrobank; PBCom; and Philippine Business Bank, among others.

In 2020, Jica said the technical cooperation project, to be undertaken for three years, aims to improve SMEs’ access to financing in the Philippines.

The initiative will include the creation of a scoring model based on a database built from information gathered from banks. Jica said some banks have already expressed their interest to participate.

In Japan, Jica said the CRD system helped improve credit access of SMEs using a tool that analyzes credit risk information.

Jica said the Philippine Magna Carta for Small Enterprises has consolidated all programs for MSME development in the Philippines. The project also helps improve risk perception on small businesses and widens their access to finance.

Continued from A1 located at Barangays Santiago, Luta Sur, and Bagong Pook in Malvar, Batangas for the expansion of the Lima Technology Center-Special Economic Zone. The expansion is expected to bring P864.224 million of investments, Peza said. With these proclaimed ecozones, Peza Director General Tereso O. Panga expressed optimism the agency is on track to hitting its target growth of 10 percent for 2023. t o RCEP, the ASEAN and ASEAN+1 free trade partners already enjoyed zeropercent tariff rates on energy goods covered under Chapter 27 of the Tariff Book published by the Tariff Commission (TC). T he DOE said the zero-percent tariff rates also apply to liquefied natural gas (LNG) given that the Philippines considers this as a transition fuel for power plants supporting variable renewable energy and expected to come into play this year in the country.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. decided to extend the registration period, which is supposed to end on April 26, 2023, after seeing the areas with the low turnout of registration are the isolated island provinces such as Dinagat, Siquijor, Camiguin, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan.

“So when it [statistics] was presented, the President noticed we need more efforts to deploy teams to those island provinces in order to address the low turnout,” Uy said.

News of the decision to extend the April 26 registration deadline was first shared with media on Tuesday morning by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, who also warned of social media unavailability for SIM card users who will fail to register during the extension period.

“There’s a 90-day extension, but most of the services that come with the cellphones that are registered will be cut off with the telcos. So there will be social media unavailability for those who do not register in the next 90 days,” Remulla said.

Remulla’s announcement came as the Supreme Court raffled off the petition filed by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and several other individuals seeking to declare as unconstitutional Republic Act No. 11934 also known as the SIM Registration Act.

The petitioners argued that the law should be struck down for violating the basic constitutional rights of SIM card users such as freedom of speech, right against unreasonable searches and seizures and right to privacy of communication.

The Court was also asked to order public telecommunication entities (PTEs) to cease and desist from using, storing, transferring, and processing all information gathered into the SIM register and to destroy data already gathered.

“In evaluating international agreements affecting the Philippine energy sector, the DOE considers investments, energy security, and access to technologies,” the agency said.

The secretary stressed that the energy sector is a capital-intensive undertaking where Filipino capital may not be sufficient.

S econd, developed countries of RCEP partner countries have advanced technological capabilities. The DOE said services by these countries in the Philippines could enhance technology transfer to local counterpart companies and DOE.

T hird, the DOE stressed that international energy cooperation is vital in pursuing collaborative activities with other countries to achieve greater energy self-sufficiency, security, and sustainability.

T hese efforts, the DOE pointed out, are geared towards ensuring the country has enough energy supply.

In the la test Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) 2020-2040, the DOE works steadily across borders, consistent with its thrust of fostering stronger international relations and partnerships meant to elevate the country’s energy programs and projects to attract foreign investments.

“And with our 10-percent target growth for 2023, we remain on track in our goal of establishing at least 30 ecozones every year that create centers of economic progress outside the National Capital Region [NCR] to spur countryside development,” the Peza chief stressed.

As of April 19, 2023, Peza said it has 20 pending ecozones to be proclaimed by the President. Of these 20 pending ecozones, there are 11 IT centers, 8 manufacturing, and 1 agro-industrial ecozone.

Panga noted, “It is exactly what we need to continue what the Administration is gearing towards: Inclusive economic development where thousands of jobs are created in the respective jurisdictions.”

T he Peza chief stressed that more investments mean more exports and more jobs.

Mean while, Peza recorded P12.537 billion worth of investments for the first quarter of 2023, a 53.99-percent increase from the P8.141 billion in approved investments recorded from the same period in 2022.

T hese investments came from the approved 42 new and expansion projects of ecozone locators and developer/operators for the first quarter of the year. Panga earlier said this surge in investments—an over 50 percent increase compared to the January-March 2022 period—is an “indication that we are on the right track in achieving our 10-percent target this year.”

In February, Peza Deputy Director General (DDG) for Operations Vivian S. Santos said year on year, the investment promotion agency expects to “operationalize” at least one to three new ecozones.

S antos explained that before ecozones get operationalized, they have to seek or be issued with a proclamation by the Office of the President.

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

BAGUIO CITY—THE Supreme

Court has rejected the plea of the National Union of Journalists and several other individuals for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the SIM card registration, hours after the Executive declared a 90-day extension of the April 26 registration deadline.

Instead, the SC directed the respondents to comment within 10 days on the merit of the petition seeking to declare unconstitutional Republic Act No. 11934 or the SIM Registration Act.

SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka said the resolution was issued at Tuesday’s regular en banc session of the magistrates but no other details were made available to the media.

The petitioners, in their Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition under Rule 65 of the Rules of Civil Procedure with Prayer for Writ of Preliminary injunction and/or TRO filed last April 17, asked the Court to Issue a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction against the respondents to restrain them from implementing the law while the case is pend -