MANILA, Philippines--President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Monday that losses from the high prices of imported oil and rice could be recouped from exports and the business process outsourcing industry that continue to expand amid the economic crisis.

"The best response by the Philippines to the rising global commodity price today is, if on the liability side of the national balance sheet, we sustained a loss from rising prices of commodities that we import, that is oil and rice, then we should endeavor to generate compensating gains on the asset side to the commodities we can export," Arroyo said in her speech at the 8th ASEAN [Association of Science and Technology] Science and Technology Week and this year's National Science and Technology Week.

"This asset side consists of hard commodities such as primary products supplemented by soft commodities such as outsource business processing under the leadership of our chairman ICT [Information Communication Technology] Ray Chua," she added in the speech which was broadcast on national television.

Arroyo reiterated her program to create a "cyber-corridor," which is a group of locations nationwide where investments in information and communications technology are to be concentrated.

The government and the private sector have been working on so-called "next wave cities" to attract business process outsourcing companies to locations outside of Metro Manila.

Next-wave cities are locations in the country identified as friendly areas for outsourcing companies. These cities are identified by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology.

From eight provinces, Arroyo said the cyber corridor has been configured by the Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines to now include 24 "next wave centers" -- Tuguegarao, Baguio, Dagupan, Urdaneta, Cabanatuan, Clark, San Fernando in Pampanga, Subic, Cainta, Bacoor, Sta. Rosa, Lipa, Batangas City, Camarines Sur, Legaspi, Iloilo, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Cebu, Leyte, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and General Santos City.

She said the new international broadband links of PLDT in La Union and Globe in Cagayan would be operational in 2009.

"So no tsunami, no earthquake, nothing will interrupt gateway services to the Philippines," Arroyo said.

A Taiwan earthquake affected Internet links of the country after major fiber optic lines were damaged in 2006.

Arroyo said that the government has allotted P3 billion from 2007 to 2010 for research and technology. For this year, the DoST received 51 percent increase in their funds from the national budget.

"We look for science and technology to do many other things, to put food on the table, to save lives and prevent calamities, to harness renewable and indigenous energy, to cure and prevent illnesses and to create more high quality jobs. And I know that all the ASEAN has the same aspirations," she said.