Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Acting Secretary Cristina Roque led the agency in defending its minimal increase in its 2025 budget during the hearing of the Committee on Appropriations at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The DTI is seeking lawmakers’ approval for its PHP10.599 billion budget under the National Expenditure Program (NEP) 2025, which includes allocation for its three attached corporations.
The programmed budget for the DTI next year is only 2.7 percent higher than its current budget of PHP10.319 billion under the General Appropriations Act (GAA).
For the DTI’s budget next year, PHP6.384 billion is allotted for the Office of the Secretary (OSEC) alone. It accounts for 60 percent of the DTI’s programmed budget for 2025.
“For our 2025 original proposal, our total requested amount is PHP19.3 billion, only for the DTI-OSEC. It excludes the attached agencies,” DTI Assistant Secretary Kristian Ablan said during the budget briefing.
The DTI’s attached agency Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) is getting 8 percent of the pie, amounting to PHP889.42 million.
The Board of Investments (BOI), the country’s leading investment promotion agency (IPA), has been allocated PHP613.34 billion, sharing 6 percent of the DTI’s 2025 budget.
The allotted budget for the Design Center of the Philippines (DCP) in 2025 stood at PHP172.49 million, PHP157.81 million for the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP), and PHP78.82 million for the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC).
The DTI also has automatic appropriations amounting to PHP302.54 million next year.
For the OSEC and attached agencies, the proposed budget is PHP8.598 billion – PHP40 million less than what these offices are getting this year, which is PHP8.638 billion, according to the GAA 2024.
Moreover, Roque reported that the country’s exports and investments as of the first half of this year exceeded last year’s level.
Goods and services exports of the country from January to June 2024 increased to USD49.1 billion from USD46.6 billion in the same period in 2023.
For the BOI alone, its investment approvals for the first half of 2024 surged to PHP1.153 trillion from PHP699.19 billion last year.
Including another attached IPA, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), the DTI’s IPAs have registered PHP1.208 billion worth of projects from January to July 2024, with 56,731 jobs expected to be generated from these investments.
The DTI said its follow-through on foreign trips of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is also crucial to lock in their investment commitments to the Chief Executive.
According to the DTI, USD76 billion was committed to the President during his official trips abroad.
Meanwhile, the DTI’s attached corporations have the following proposed budgets: Small Business Corp. with PHP1.5 billion, the Center for International Trade and Expositions and Missions (CITEM) with PHP244.61 million, and the Aurora Pacific and Economic Zone Authority (APECO) with PHP256.02 million. (PNA)
