Amid domestic and global economic and political challenges, the Board of Investments (BoI) announced the recalibration of the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) for 2023-2028.

In her presentation during the culmination of the National Exporters Week 2025 at the EDSA Shangri-La on Thursday, BoI-Export and Marketing Bureau director Bianca Sykimte said the new reduced target for PEDP 2023-2028 is now ranging from $132.8 billion to $135.1 billion.

Originally, the PEDP, signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in June 2023, targets $163.6 billion export value in 2025; $186.7 billion in 2026; $212.1 billion in 2027, and $240.5 billion in 2028.

She said the recalibrated PEDP was based on global demand and recent export performance of key sectors driving export figures.

“The exports’ growth has decelerated in the last two years, so we have to adjust. We lowered it because of global political tensions, uncertainty from the United States tariffs, and the disruption of global routes, particularly the earlier drought in the Panama Canal and the Houthis’ attack. In the first two years, we really missed the export targets, so we have to recalibrate. 

BoI Undersecretary Perry Rodolfo, the best time to recalibrate is when we are about to grow,” she said.

As the October 2025 exports data posted a 19.4 percent year-on-year growth, director Sykimte said they see November and December, and the entire year to be on the positive side for Philippine exports, driven by the continued growth of electronics and semiconductors.

“Even in the historical average, it’s going to be a positive growth in the country’s export (for this year). I think we can bank on our good performance in the last five months, which was $7.2 billion in exports on average, compared to $5-6 billion in the past years,” she said.

She said the October export growth is spread across many sectors and 28 commodity groups, while only 21 commodity groups declined.

Citing October export figures, the electronics sector is still the country’s leading export category, growing by 11.7 percent, rising from $36.54 billion in 2024 to $40.82 billion in 2025.

The expansion suggests sustained momentum in semiconductor and electronic component manufacturing, supported by both export diversification and increased orders from major trading partners.

Reacting to the recalibrated PEDP 2023-2028, Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) president Sergio Ortiz Luis Jr. said the new target is a more realistic target amid the challenges that exporters face.

“Actually, the lowered target we were doubtful about, until US President Donald Trump mellowed down about tariffs. We hope the electronics and agriculture sectors will not be compromised, as 15 percent of our exports go to the US, half of which are electronics, and the other half is agriculture,” he said.

Under the recent US Executive Order, the share of Philippine agricultural exports to the US enjoying exemptions from reciprocal tariffs surged from virtually zero to over 65 percent of covered categories.

The policy shift benefits high-value products such as coconut oil and derivatives, pineapple and mango preparations, frozen bananas, cassava, baked goods, coffee and select spices.

Diminishing exporters

Meanwhile, Export Development Council executive director Bianca Pearl Sykimte admitted that the country’s exporters are indeed declining, with just roughly 4,000 to date against more than 8,000 a decade ago.

“Maybe they exited because they don’t want to do direct exporting anymore, and we are seeing growing numbers of consolidators. Exporting is a daunting process, so for other companies, it makes sense to work with consolidators. Or probably, because we are a growing domestic market, they just opted to prioritize it. But we haven’t done an in-depth study on this,” she explained.

Partnering with the World Bank

To ensure that the export sector will remain globally competitive, director Sykimte announced that they have partnered with the World Bank Group in a project dubbed “Philippines COMPETE Plus for SMEs” designed to address the persistent challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

The main objective of the project, to be funded by the World Bank by hundreds of millions of dollars, is to promote the competitiveness of participating SMEs by facilitating capability upgrading and enhancing their access to market connections.