There is a strong effort of the national government to promote exports by involving all the regions in a “localization” process.

This process aims to drum up local initiatives towards achieving US$ 50 billion worth of exports this year.
To be mobilized in this effort are the regional offices of the Department of Trade and Industry, the Regional Development Councils, and PHILEXPORT Chapters.

This initiative will create markets for our exports and thereby, employment opportunities.

Looking at our regional situation, an essential first step in this effort is to determine what exports this region can promote.

The common strategy is to promote “non-traditional” exports. This refers to exports other than copra and abaca, our “traditional” exports. For example, coconut oil exports in this region reached 11,299 Metric Tons in the 1st quarter of 2005.

In this sense, we can look at agribusiness ventures such as handicrafts, fruits, and marine products (frozen bangus). Getting the data on existing enterprises and their capabilities (and difficulties) is essential in determining the extent to which they can enter the export market.

The region must move out of its dependence on traditional agricultural products if it is to significantly reduce poverty. With a fixed land area and an increasing population, there is a lot of pressure to produce more from land and labor, particularly in rural areas. However, productivity gains are difficult to achieve for a variety of reasons (e.g. weather disturbances, inadequate capital, poor infrastructure, etc.)

Increasing exports of traditional products is a major solution if these are largely rural-based. If these areas are able to participate more in our economic growth then we can lick the poverty problem.

However, miracles in the export market do not happen overnight, so it will take a persistent effort to reach this target. My view is this “localization” must be sustained to achieve its intended impact on the economic development of regions.