STRATEGIC actions tagged by the previous administration as crucial for the country’s industrialization have been tweaked by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under its current policy orientation.

Under the Duterte government, the DTI implemented the Inclusive Innovation Industrial Strategy or I3S that aimed to foster positive changes in the Philippines’ manufacturing, agriculture and services industries.

Six strategies were identified for adoption by the state, industries and the academe: embracing Industry 4.0 technologies, developing innovative startups, and small and medium enterprises, integrating the production system, improving the ease of doing business, upskilling/

reskilling the workforce, and building an innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual, in a speech on Monday before the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, said six strategic actions also needed to be pursued in line with the existing science, innovation and technology-defined industrial policy.

As with the previous I3S program, the first also involves embracing Industry 4.0 and its attendant technologies such as artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing.

The second also reiterates the need to develop innovative micro, small and medium enterprises as well as startups while the third — integrating trade, investment promotion and industry development policies — expands the previous concept of linking production systems and value chains.

Improving the ease of doing business has been recast as creating and fostering an enabling economic environment to attract more investments while upskilling/reskilling is now developing human capital and capacitybuilding programs to prepare the workforce for the future.

Lastly, promoting regional industrialization through innovation and entrepreneurship has replaced the previous strategy of building an innovation and entrepreneurship system.

The previous I3S program identified the following as priority industries: autos and auto parts; electronic manufacturing services, aerospace parts and aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul; chemicals; shipbuilding and ship repair; furniture, garments and creative industries; tools and dies, iron and steel; construction, information technology/business process management and e-commerce; transport and logistics; tourism; and agribusiness.

The current DTI industrial policy, meanwhile, has tagged four sources of growth: the industrial, manufacturing and transport (IMT); technology, media and telecommunications (TMT); health and life sciences (HLS); and modern basic needs and resilient economy clusters.

“The first three industrial clusters align with trends in the global reconfiguration of GVCs (global value chains) due to the pandemic, the emergence of disruptive technologies, and the ‘servicification’ of manufacturing,” a transcript of Pascual speech states.

The fourth, meanwhile, “reinforces the foundations for the country’s economic recovery, and long-term sustainable and inclusive growth.”

In particular, Pascual said that with regard to IMT, the Philippines should be processing and producing semifinished and finished mineral products instead of merely exporting raw ore.

Meanwhile, the continued integration of pharmaceutical, medical devices and health care services in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic was seen facilitating the development of the HLS cluster in the Philippines.

As for the fourth cluster, Pascual said that it would be prioritized “given the need to pursue food security, modernization of our agricultural and fishing sectors, and important goals in basic needs, quality education and clean energy.”