To keep local industries competitive with their counterparts overseas, the government is encouraging them to come up with their own industry roadmaps and implement these strictly.

National Competitiveness Council co-chairman Guillermo Luz said that not all industries are aware of what roadmaps can do for them.

Luz cited the case of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, which have led the way in creating their own industry roadmap and have organized themselves well as an industry.

He considers the BPO roadmap crafted by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines as the “best-developed” roadmap, citing that they barely existed before 2000 and they were able to organize themselves in a short time. The BPO industry is considered the fastest growing industry in the country and one of the country’s main growth drivers.

Projected earnings

BPOs earned $11 billion in 2011 and expect to end 2012 with $14 billion in revenue.

They are projecting earnings of $25 billion by 2016.

“You don’t get to that size if you don’t have a strategy,” he said.

Luz said individual firms and industries drive growth and wealth creation and urged local industries to get organized and create their own five-to 10-year roadmaps.

He urged local organizations to get involved with regional competitiveness committees and use the lessons they learn and share these with their members.

Roadmaps, he said, should describe the current state of their industry, other countries considered their competitors, their potentials for growth in employment and value, the projected investments by industry players and the policy environment that they require.

Currently, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Board of Investments (BOI) are working on an industry roadmapping project that will end with the drafting of a comprehensive national industry strategy.

This strategy project is to be led and crafted by the private sector. DTI Undersecretary for Industry and Trade Policy Adrian Cristobal Jr. earlier said that since January this year, various consultative meetings have been held with industry associations and companies, along with government agencies that have resulted in commitments to do the roadmapping of their respective sectors and in funding the necessary workshops.

Submissions

As of September, some nine sectors have submitted their own industry roadmaps, while they are expecting 17 more submissions in the coming months.

Cristobal had said they are expecting to complete most of these roadmaps and the comprehensive industrial strategy by the first quarter of next year.

original source: www.sunstar.com.ph