The Philippines’ first National Logistics Master Plan is seen to address the issues and concerns that affect the competitiveness of the Philippine logistics industry, including the lack of infrastructure and difficulties arising from regulatory bottlenecks.
In the recent EDC Executive Committee meeting, the Department of Trade and Industry Competitiveness Bureau presented the 21-point priority agenda under the four strategies of the National Logistics Master Plan namely: under Infrastructure, Policies, Regulation and Institution.
EDC prioritizes four logistics issues that are of great concern to exports. These support to: 1) Develop road network and bridges through government convergence programs like the DPWH-DTI Roads Leveraging Linkages for Industry and Trade (ROLL-IT), 2) Amendment of Public Services Act (PSA), 3) Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) charter amendments and the 4) Repeal of the Letter of Instructions 1005-A which remove the 10-20% cargo handling share of government.
For infrastructure development, the goal is to enhance connectivity, make roads and bridges resilient to facilitate trade, development, tourism, and support countryside development via logistics corridors. EDC recognized that one logistics concern we need to focus on is the farm-to-market connectivity by developing the road network and bridges through the government convergence programs.
For the policy side, the NLMP aims to have a conducive environment for domestic and foreign investments in logistics and infrastructure development. It also aims to craft policies in order to address issues concerning the country’s compliance with international commitments.
The Amendment of PSA will effect the necessary changes in the antiquated provisions of the law to increase its relevance to contemporary concerns, in the interest of providing the general pubic with more choices, better services and lower prices in the identified . Also, the amendments of the charters of CAAP and PPA will not only address the overlapping and conflicting functions of these regulatory agencies with their developmental mandates, but also improve the competitiveness of our goods and services by reducing transport cost.– Maria Jobellieza A. Alzate