INTRODUCTION
Thank you very much, Secretary Navarro; Undersecretary Bautista; Deputy Director General Valdellon; the UNDP Resident Representative, Mr. Abu Salim; your excellencies, the heads of the international agencies; our co-workers in government; other special guests; ladies and gentlemen.

I quickly looked over this masterpiece of Roy Navarro and his associates, but i find something very wrong with it. In the first place, Navarro is not mentioned here. In the second place, neither am i. Otherwise, this could look like the product of the Philippine Appliance Corporation.

But levity aside, ladies and gentlemen, all this needs is a message of promulgation from the president and a foreword by the Secretary of Trade and Industry. And after that, we shall start distributing 500,000 copies.

At the outset, I would like to congratulate our export industry leaders for responding to the challenges of our Proclamation No. 167, which I issued on the 20th of April 1993, after correcting the draft order that you gave me. So, that was not so long ago.

And I am delighted that the result of all of this is the presentation of this Medium-Term Philippine Export Plan, as well as the selection of the winners, the so-called champions of our export sector, which enjoy a comparative advantage over all others in the global arena.

Once again, we have successfully proven that by planning and working together, both government and the private sector can achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves in line with our vision of “Philippines 2000!!!”.
THE NEED FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS
Philippine exports must, indeed, be world competitive if we want them to be substantially contributive to our economic development. We must encourage our factories to achieve greater efficiency and produce better quality products. But, at the same time, these products must be reasonably priced so that they can appeal to all customers around the world.

We cannot over-emphasize here the importance of being globally competitive. That is why fostering export industries is one of our identified seven growth strategies.

Competition in the world market today is much stiffer than what it was, when our neighbors began their rise to become the dragons of East Asia.

The exclusivist economic blocks, increasing protectionism in Europe and the Americas, and the shift to market mechanisms in the ex-Communist countries, indicate the tough environment in which we have to operate.

We have taken much too long to get our act together. We missed the boat of modernization from the 60’s to the 80’s.

And as the 21st century promises to be the Pacific age, especially in its early part, we cannot afford to be left behind again. This may be our last chance to join the rest of East Asia in its prosperity boom. In the coming years, the rate of growth in this area is predicted to be faster than in any other part of the globe.

We must be part of that growth. And we must develop our export industries in such a way that they can be competitive with those of our neighbors if we seriously want to be part of that growth.
THE FIVE-POINT ACTION PLAN
After that enlightening presentation prepared by Secretary Navarro and his staff, I have no doubt that the Medium-Term Philippine Export Development Plan will drum up more support from our people as a vital component of our desired economic growth.

I have taken note of the four action points in your export initiative.
May I point out, however, that there are really five points in this export initiative. Secretary Navarro mentioned the first four: the unveiling of the export plan; the realignment of the organizational structure, including the setting up of a networking committee; the signing of an order to reconstitute your council; and the induction of the council members.

He has not mentioned the fifth and certainly most important component, the actual work to make our exports competitive in the world market.

In other words, operationalizing the action program outward into the global arena is the critical move we have to do. So let’s do it.

That’s why the signatures of Navarro and Ramos must appear here, so that they will be recognized in Singapore, in the US, and elsewhere where we want to do business, otherwise, they may think this is a Philacor paper.

My dear friends, I thank the UNDP for its valuable support for this outward global networking orientation, as well as all other agencies providing assistance and support to move the Philippines more effectively into the world market.

I need not stress further the urgency of our need for a body to oversee the plan’s correct and thorough implementation. We now transform the existing export and investment development council into a stronger body, with more members, more powers and expectedly more responsibilities.

Thus, I am not going to sign this memo order before you, I have already signed it. And we just issue you the xerox copies. And this order reorganizes the Export and Investment Development Council into the Export Development Council to be composed of the following:

The Secretary of Trade and Industry as chairman; the Secretary of Finance as vice-chairman, and the following as members: the Secretary of Agriculture; Secretary of Foreign Affairs; Director General of the NEDA; the Governor of the Central Bank, or the CMA, or the BSP, as it maybe called later on — Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, hindi Boy Scouts of the Philippines iyan — the Presidential Assistants for Visayas and for Mindanao today, these are Rhett Pelaez and Paul Dominguez and eight representatives from the private sector as recommended by Secretary Navarro. And they are; Paterno Dizon, Edgar Godinez, Samson Lim, Sergio Ortiz-Luis, jr., Raymundo Segura, Luis Sicat, Herminigildo Zayco, and the last but certainly not the least, Dante Santos. I saw him, he was a little nervous, you know. Kasama ka.
CLOSING
This council is crucial to the growth we envisioned for the next five years. And we pin our hopes on the fifth component of this action program as I mentioned which I would like to call, global networking, the fruits of which we have yet to see but which, we know, is also warmly and even enthusiastically seen by the host countries that we have visited. And so, with this power pact membership surely, we will meet, if not surpass our goals.

I thank once more the donor organizations who have made this launching possible through their funding assistance and support. And I hope that they will continue to lend their assistance and support for all other government programs.

The groundwork for our shared vision has started and being put in place. So now is the time to do it, so let’s do it.

Onward “Philippines 2000!!!”

Thank you very much.