Ease of doing business must be improved for PH to be competitive | Business and Politics - video Dailymotion

The Manila Times

Ease of doing business must be improved for PH to be competitive | Business and Politics  Patrick Ronas, president and CEO of Mstar Ship Agencies Inc. and Association of International Shipping Lines (AISL) says that to compete internationally, the Philippines must first fix internal issues such as improvements in ease of doing business.   Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcher Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes

Transcript

00:00 Sir, you said earlier, you know, the Manila terminals are important because that's where

00:07 about 70 percent, as you said, of the trade goes through. There have been a number of

00:14 initiatives in the past, administrations to develop alternative ports, Patangas in the

00:20 south, Subic in the north. Where are we with that? And are you happy with the pace of development

00:29 there? And how are those two alternatives looking right now?

00:33 Well, you have, okay, Patangas and Subic, part of Luzon, and this is where main trade

00:42 happens. So Patangas at the moment has been very healthy. It's attracting a lot of international

00:49 vessel calls because the auto industry is there, you have your motorcycles moving through

00:54 there and you have a lot of factories on the south side of Manila. You have some multinationals

01:02 who have their factories at that end and they can move cargo from there or get their raw

01:07 materials from there. So it's basically good for Patangas. Subic Bay, I think there's a

01:13 lot of promise considering that, you know, with this shift with the U.S. and EDCA sites

01:19 all over, I think Subic will be the main gateway for some of these EDCA sites where cargo will

01:26 start coming in and then it will go through all the other EDCA sites. So it becomes sort

01:30 of a hub. So that will be good for Subic. Other ports, you've got Cebu, Cebu is your

01:39 gateway to west and eastern Visayas. You've got Mid-Danao, Davao, General Santos, Pineapples,

01:49 your bananas will come from Davao. But in the Visayas, there's a new international call

02:01 happening as far as international shipments are concerned. They're now calling the port

02:03 of Iloilo. There was a lot of cargo in the past was moving. Any cargo from Iloilo used

02:10 to move from Cebu, used to ship over Cebu using domestic ships or over land on trucks.

02:18 But this is very much welcome considering that Iloilo has been booming and then at the

02:23 same time, Cebu port has always been congested. So with lineup, draft, there's been some draft

02:30 restrictions in the past. So you can't really bring in bigger ships.

02:34 You mean when you say draft restrictions, you mean the depth of the water?

02:37 The depth of the water. So you have to have some free space for you to make it safely.

02:44 If it's going to hit, so what do you do? You carry less cargo on top.

02:47 I see. You carry less cargo on top. So that's always

02:51 been the problem. Cebu has had its fair share of congestion. And in fact, you also hear

02:58 of Cebu having traffic jams and government limiting the movement of trucks within certain

03:05 hours. So they're similar. Meanwhile, Iloilo is booming. So the economy

03:12 is doing so well. So it's a good thing. There's an international call made by regional container

03:19 lines and now they're calling Iloilo direct. Now in Mindanao, they also are calling the

03:25 port of Zamboanga. There's never been an international vessel. There were before, but stopped because

03:33 of the peace and order situation and politics and all that.

03:37 But now, from what I know, it has steadied quite a bit. And Dr. Henry Basilio, who I'm

03:43 sure you know, field export in USAID, actually did some selling of this and helped RCL because

03:53 it connected BARM. It connected BARM to Zamboanga and told BARM that, look, your trade should

04:01 be a little bit more better. This will help be robust. Although the main objective of

04:07 those people or of Dr. Basilio is to eventually maybe a smaller ship can call BARM and you

04:13 know how the situation in BARM is. It needs a bit of help. So at least we've got a, now

04:19 we've got an international call going Zamboanga. Because what happened in the past, products

04:25 that were exported from BARM, they sell the raw materials.

04:31 Take for example, this was taught me, your seaweeds.

04:37 The carrageenan?

04:38 Yeah. Before you turn that into carrageenan, there's the seaweed. The seaweeds, they sell

04:44 that and it only cost about 500 pesos per.

04:49 There's no processing.

04:50 No processing. But the minute you process it, it's value added.

04:53 It goes 10 times as much. Eventually they can put up their own carrageenan plant. You're

04:58 nearer. Wala kang problema. Wala kang managing. You export the finished product already and

05:04 not just do trading. Which is good.

05:07 Right.

05:08 Which is good. So those are some of the bright spots we're looking at. New port called Iloilo.

05:13 Oh yeah, Davao. When we talked last time, there were some developments in Davao also

05:18 with I think Sasa Port Bend or something. But what's going on? What's the situation

05:25 there?

05:26 Right now, most of the cargo or most of the export cargo, especially bananas.

05:31 Pineapple.

05:32 And pineapples is moving out of the ICT. That's in Panabo. Sasa, where it's nearer to the

05:38 port, used to be where a lot of import cargoes would go.

05:41 I see.

05:42 Because it was nearer the city.

05:45 I see.

05:46 And it was a lot of copper. Then there was a bidding that happened. One of these companies

05:54 bought it and then one of these companies bidded for it, won it, but then backed out.

05:58 But now it's been taken over or it's been bought over by GlobalPort. But we've never,

06:04 we've not heard as to what's the timeline like as to how they will develop that. But

06:10 they really have to fix that because it's really run down.

06:13 Mm.

06:14 There was no, even if it was run before, but there was no approval for the repairs

06:22 to be done on the hard top.

06:24 Yeah.

06:25 So, but this one, I think you have to do it all over again. You can't put tango cranes

06:29 on the pier because it's going to collapse.

06:33 Right.

06:34 So you have to really fix it up from the ground up.

06:37 Any other port destinations that the government should be looking to develop you think that

06:43 would help boost more trade? I mean, you talked about Zamboanga being revived, the developments

06:51 in Oyili Ilo that opens up, Wash and Visayas and of course Decon Jez Sebu. Are there any

06:56 other places in the Philippines that should be looked at by the government you think that

06:59 would be a strategic development option?

07:03 Well, for us international liners, we're looking at, is that that easy to build a port?

07:09 Sure.

07:10 Or invest in such magnitude. You have to make sure that you have the right volumes.

07:17 Otherwise, your terminal operator will just suffer a loss.

07:20 Yeah.

07:21 No, indi ganun eh. But right now, we've got all the gateways covered and Ilo Ilo is very

07:31 much welcome.

07:32 Yeah.

07:33 It's got potential. You already have Batangas. You have Subic.

07:37 Yeah.

07:38 You have all the ports. Right now, things are, I think, steady, not unless eventually

07:44 a new manufacturing hub or a bigger manufacturing hub should happen.

07:49 Yeah.

07:50 Or if all of a sudden they decide that, okay, Manila's getting to be congested, too congested.

07:59 But then you'll never know because again, as I mentioned, we're not against reclamation

08:05 per se as long as you do it well.

08:08 Hopefully with consultation.

08:11 Yeah. This reclamation maybe can actually help eventually. Maybe you'll have another

08:16 route to bypass the usual roads to get to certain destination. Then I heard that the

08:25 government plans to put up a bridge from Cavite, it goes to Batangas.

08:30 To Batangas.

08:31 Yeah.

08:32 Ganda nun.

08:33 Right.

08:34 Ganda nun.

08:35 Yeah.

08:36 I wanted to throw this question at you. Do you think we'll be able to compete with the

08:39 likes of Singapore or Hong Kong? Because I think the last time we talked about this,

08:45 you said they already have the market. Right? How do we move now so that what do we offer

08:53 to get that market? Or do we build a new market? What do you think can be done to make the

08:59 Philippines a hub for trading in the region?

09:02 I think before we basically attract the others to go our end, although that should be a target

09:09 always. For us, I think we should look internally first. Let's fix ourselves. Let's fix our

09:19 exporters. If you listen to exporters, what's their biggest problem? If you look at the

09:27 investors, what's your biggest headache? It's all about ease of doing business. Good thing

09:37 we have PESA. It's under good, it's good. We've got a good help at PESA. At PESA now,

09:44 it's attracting investors. It's a one-stop shop. You go away with all the red tape and

09:49 you want to put up a business. One of the things that they actually say about us, Filipinos

09:54 are very good workers. We can speak the language, international language. We're good. Only problem,

10:01 I guess, is also the cost of electricity. That's one thing that they have to look at.

10:07 That's always a headache. That's why when I talk to a few exporters, they always say

10:15 that already we know we accept the price of electricity. It limits us, it limits them

10:24 from taking a look at some of the other inputs. They only have very few margins because electricity

10:32 is taking a big chunk of it. That's something that we have to address. If we can bring our

10:39 exports up, means we can do more volumes. It makes good for the government. Our throughputs

10:45 for imports would also go up. Then that's a time that you can attract investors. We're

10:56 the right smack centre of Southeast Asia. Para tayong malayo na malapit. Usually your

11:06 main trading partner, like for example, China, to go down to Southeast Asia, malayo siya.

11:10 You can actually carry cargo to China, make a bit of money, and then from here move cargo

11:19 outside. When you compute for freight cost, it has to be turned around. If you're laden

11:27 here, although this is heaven for any shipping line to achieve, you move laden in, you move

11:34 laden out, perfect. Balanse ka, one is to one or one is to two, that's fine. But right

11:40 now kasi it's one is to three. For every four imports that come in, only one export box

11:48 goes out laden.

11:49 So that's something that needs to be addressed.

11:50 Yes, that should be addressed. So kailangan bumalanse siya.

11:53 Well, Mr. Aranas, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Whenever we talk, I always learn

11:58 something new. Some shipping logistics is so fascinating, but unfortunately it's not

12:05 really something we talk about in the mainstream. I think we should. Before we go, would you

12:10 like to leave a message to our audience, maybe some final thoughts?

12:13 Yes, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity, Kling. I just want to thank all of those who

12:20 helped us most especially during the time of the pandemic and for our partners in the

12:25 industry who through to form, they keep on working. Our brothers in the trade, without

12:34 them we won't be able to sustain the service that we can give. Our terminal operators,

12:41 our container depot operators, we store our empty containers, our truckers who move the

12:46 cargo out, and for our costus brokers who make sure that they try to keep the velocity

12:52 of containers moving. And of course to the government. There are some of them who has

12:59 helped us, Department of Trade, through DTI, the Logistics Services Philippines Group.

13:09 They have a very industrious Assistant Secretary, Indy Pacheco, and he grouped us together,

13:16 let's talk about your issues. So it promoted a lot of understanding. Kasi para kami, shipping

13:22 line, very technical. Para kami, we're in a silo. We get hit, we can't say much, but

13:27 at least there, kakaroon kami ng dialogue. The DOTR, well thank you very much for keeping

13:35 a close tab on things, for always listening and trying to find ways out how they can help

13:41 the industry as a whole. We have a very understanding Secretary and good people behind.

13:51 Like Elmer Sarmiento, who's the USEC for maritime, who's always kept an open mind. Nasa sermon

13:58 kami niyan, pero yung mga good points pinipick up din niya. And ARTA, of course. You see

14:10 when you go to ARTA, babata nung mga technicians. But when I saw the report, the way it came

14:18 out, it was really good. You learn everything. You should never close it.

14:27 And the other people in government or the other government agencies who try to help

14:34 out, Bureau of Customs, we have to partner with them all the time. We have to reach an

14:39 understanding with them all the time because that's where our cargo goes.

14:43 And of course, let's not forget the PPA. I guess eventually there are good things that

14:52 we get from them. They make sure that all the other stakeholders are in their places.

15:01 So I'm sure we'll get to an understanding about the stops here at MS later on.

15:05 All right. Well, Mr. Reyes, thank you very much. And as you said, let's not forget the

15:10 first mile. The first mile and 90% of everything. Thank

15:14 you. Thank you.

15:15 Thank you.

15:23 Thank you.

15:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Ease of doing business must be improved for PH to be competitive | Business and Politics

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