The global boundaries of international trade and tourism have long been broken with the signing of several commerce agreements among nations and the increased pace of travel nowadays. These two sectors have become the linchpin for many economies, especially those in Asia and other developing regions.
Our BOP of late has been under pressure. Economic activities picked up in 2022 and we had to import more to meet rising domestic demand. The sudden surge in global fuel and commodity prices last year complicated the supply chain scenario, which led to elevated inflation in most countries. But we could not fully rely on remittances and BOP revenues all the time to cover our widening trade and BOP deficits. We need to pull up our merchandise exports, tourism receipts and investments to shield our economy from external challenges.
We hope that becoming a part of RCEP would indeed bring more investments to the Philippines and allow our exports to gain wider market access to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its Asia-Pacific partners—China, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. I hope that we will be able to take advantage of this trade agreement to lift our exports and catch up with our imports. Specifically, I hope the RCEP will help our farmers and MSMEs gain wider market access to other Asian countries and attract more foreign investments.