Vision
PCCI is the voice of Philippine business recognized by government and international institutions. As a proactive catalyst of development, PCCI promotes and supports the drive for globally competitive Philippine enterprises in partnership with government, local chambers, and other business organizations.
Mission
The main responsibility of PCCI is to provide focused advocacy for business growth and sustainable development by providing business services for the advancement of grassroots entrepreneurship, chamber development, international trade relations, business innovation and excellence, and operating efficiency. These will be achieved through a professional organization working in close cooperation with various stakeholders in public and private sectors.
PCCI pushes for business sector’s representation in the SRA board
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is backing the call of the local food manufacturers and exporters to allow a business sector representation on the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board to ensure that the voice of the MSMEs is heard and considered.
At the PCCI Agriculture Committee Meeting, the members composed of the agribusiness industry leaders were in agreement in proposing to the SRA, which is chaired by the President as concurrent head of the Department of Agriculture (DA), to designate a representative from the Philippine Food Exporters (Philfoodex) to participate in the SRA Board consultative meeting.
Paul Cuyegkeng, chairman of the PCCI Agriculture Committee said that the proposal is essential to strike a balance between the needs of farmers, millers, and food manufacturers, which are composed largely of MSMEs.
“We believe that all sectors must be heard. Our local food processors and manufacturers, which are mostly MSMEs have long been burdened with the high cost of refined sugar and sadly, they are not able to compete with our counterparts in ASEAN, whose sugary-made products are sold way cheaper than ours,” Cuyegkeng said.
The committee said that government should engage the private sector to determine the requirements of MSMEs and consider them in the import request in order to continue operations. Likewise, the group said that government should also look into modernizing the milling industry to increase production and provide incentives to attract investments in the agriculture-related manufacturing sector.
Aside from industry representation to the SRA board, it can be recalled that the PCCI, Philfoodex and Philexport, over the last five years, have been requesting SRA to allocate 10,000 bags or 500 metric tons of refined sugar solely for export use of local food manufacturers and processors so they can compete with sugary-made products from ASEAN.
“We again appeal to SRA for a (refined) sugar allocation which is only .3 percent of the 150,000 metric tons approved for importation this season,” Ruben See, Philfoodex president said, adding that requests have been sent to SRA and DA, but no action has been taken since.
The committee also proposed that importation should be done through the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) to ensure monitoring and accounting for the release of imported sugar.
The committee members present at the meeting were Dr. William Co, Chairman of PCCI and Director for Agriculture and Fishery Committee, Mr. Salvador Salacup, Executive Director of PCAFI and Agrifoodhub, Mr. Ruben See, President of Philfoodex, Mr. Anton Sayo, Chairman of Alay Buhay Foundation, Inc., Mr. Edwin Chen, President of Bounty Fresh Corp, Atty. Elias Inciong, President of United Broilers Raisers Association (UBRA), Mr. Henry Lim Bon Liong, President of SL Agritech Corporation, Mr. Ernie Ordoñez, Chairman of Alyansa Agrikultura and Dr. Larry Lacson, Senior Vice President of Texicon Agri Ventures Corp. and former Director of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI). --- Donna Brazas Angulo, Joanna Paula Pascual