CARREON
The vibrant trade activity in the third quarter of the year shows that Central Visayas is serving as a major hub in the country.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), both quantity and value of total trade in the region increased during the covered period or from July to September 2017.
According to data from the PSA, Central Visayas posted the highest quantity of all traded commodities among the regions with 0.94 million tons between the months of July and September this year, up by 748 percent from 0.11 million tons during the same period in 2016.
This was followed by Central Luzon and Northern Mindanao with 0.86 million tons and 0.79 million tons, respectively.
Central Visayas also had the highest inflow value amounting to P28.03 billion, reflecting an 18.2 percent share in the total inflow for the three-month period. Inflow refers to the total quantity value of commodities coming into a specified region.
“This would indicate and confirm that Central Visayas is serving as a major trade hub in the country. It means that the region is a major supplier of manufactured goods to other regions,” Efren Carreon, regional director of the National Economic and Development Authority in Central Visayas (NEDA-7), told Cebu Daily News in a text message.
Carreon clarified that he has yet to check the data released by PSA to give a more categorical answer on the implications of the figures.
However, he said that offhand this would mean Central Visayas is also a major consumer of goods coming from other regions for direct consumption as in agriculture products and as raw materials for manufacturing.
The PSA, a Neda-attached agency, reported that the total quantity of domestic trade during the third quarter of 2017 was registered at 4.86 million tons, up by 18.9 percent from 4.09 million tons of the same quarter a year ago.
Food and live animals ranked first in terms of quantity, with 1.16 million tons or a 23.6 perent share of all traded commodities. Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes had the least quantity with only 0.02 million tons.
Similarly, the value of domestic trade in the third quarter of 2017 was recorded at P153.99 billion, an increase of 3.3 percent from the P149.14 billion posted in the same quarter of the previous year.
Machinery and transport equipment accounted for P53.09 billion or 34.4 percent of the total value of traded commodities followed by food and live animals posting P36.64 billion and manufactured goods classified chiefly by material with value amounting to P18.73 billion.
About 99.85 percent of the total value of commodities that flowed within the country was traded by means of water while the remaining 0.15 percent through air, the PSA noted.
While Central Visayas led in terms of trade quantity and inflow value, it was among ten regions cited by the PSA with unfavorable trade balance during the covered period.
Trade balance is the difference between outflow and inflow. Outflow refers to the total quantity volume of commodities which goes out of a specified region.
For the months of July to September 2017, Central Visayas posted a trade deficit of P3.57 billion, which means that the value of the region’s incoming traded products exceeded that of its outgoing traded products domestically.
In earlier reports, Neda Undersecretary Rolando Tungpalan said trade, whether domestic or international, can be further enhanced if the country’s potential in digital trade and electronic commerce can be tapped.
Tungpalan said it is important to follow through with reforms that will develop these areas to help enhance trade productivity.
One example is the Philippine Customs and Trade Facilitation project, a $200 million World Bank-funded modernization plan for the Bureau of Customs (BOC), seen to boost the agency’s efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and revenue collection through an updating of systems, procedures and operational activities related to processing and clearance of imported and exported goods.