REACTION PAPER: March

Philippine exporters see business in Japan rehab

MANILA, Philippines - While complaining of temporary disruption in the delivery of orders to some parts of Japan, Philippine exporters are seeing opportunities in the near future in the Japanese market when rehabilitation efforts in the earthquake-, tsunami- and now-nuclear crisis-stricken country kick off.

Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, told the BusinessMirror that both the services and merchandise exporters in the Philippines should get ready to support the expected increase in orders from Japan.

“There will surely be a shortage in the supply of food and manpower in Japan, so the opportunities are there,” Ortiz-Luis said.

He said the exporters’ group is now getting feedback from some of its members that orders are not getting delivered due to the logistics problem in Japan, particularly in the damaged areas in northeast, right now.

Mostly affected, he said, are agricultural products, since they are perishable and the buyers in Japan need to delay the orders until the transport and communications system are already in better condition. The condition of the storage facilities also needs to improve.

“But this is only temporary. When things normalize, we are seeing opportunities,” Ortiz-Luis said.

He said when the rehabilitation starts, Japan will probably have to hook up with Philippine companies that will support the reconstruction efforts. This would mean actual employment of Filipinos in Japan, since the Japanese may not be able to fill up the need for manpower themselves.

Also, there will be Japanese companies that will be prompted to outsource some of their operations elsewhere while in the process of rebuilding.

Japan used to have a 30% share in the Philippine merchandise exports, Ortiz-Luis said. Its share in Philippine exports has now fallen to about 8% to 10%.

Exports to Japan are mostly electronics and auto components, minerals and farm products.

Earlier, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc. said its member-companies are encountering problems in the supply chain because several inputs and components come from Japan-based plants.

This is also mainly due to the disruption in the transport system in the areas damaged by the major earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last Friday.

SOURCE: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/03/16/11/philippine-exporters-see-business-japan-rehab

The tsunami that hit Japan may have a positive effect in our country’s economy. As what we have heard they are currently experiencing shortages from their supplies like food because their agriculture was one of the most affected area and laborers for many people died. Many employers had lost their employees that day. Many are totally damaged like their communication, transportation and operation in doing business. I must say that this event is really a great help for our economy but I am not saying that I’m happy of what had happen to Japan last week because neither am I was also afraid for our country has reached the alert level 2 of tsunami.

Because of this damages and shortages that Japan is experiencing today it opens a great opportunity to us every Filipino to exports our goods and services. Because today that country really needed help to recover from the disaster that had happen to them last week. This would be good for the export company and to those Filipino who wants to have a job abroad. Due to what happen many employees from different country and different company had returned back to their homes and many have died in tsunami. This is why the country experiences shortage in labor.

As a student from my point of view this is really a great opportunity for our country to improve the economy even if this is only temporary. At least this will improve our economy for good. We must take chances in order to make help our economy as one of the concern citizen of this country.