MANILA, Philippines — The foreign business community has failed to attain its $7.5 billion annual FDI growth target set by the foreign business community to hit a total of $75 billion FDIs by 2020 under its “Arangkada Philippines” initiative.
“Arangkada Philippines,” which proposes recommendations for the government to push the economy forward and attain $75 billion in FDIs and 10 million jobs for the period 2010-2020, was launched by the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) last year.
European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) President Hubert d’Aboville expressed hope that the latest figure from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas of $850 million FDIs for this year was not correct.
D’Aboville said that Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory L. Domingo told him that some FDI inflows have not been captured in the BSP computation. But he said that even $1 billion in FDIs in 2011 could not be considered big enough as against its target of $7.5 billion.
Cumulative FDI inflows for the eight-month period of 2011 totaled only to $810 million, or a 19.2-percent decline from the US$1-billion net inflows posted in the same period a year ago.
For 2012, he said the most realistic FDI could be $2.5 billion but said that based on Domingo’s computation the FDI this year could be between $5 billion and $6 billion.
“I really hope we could reach $5 billion or go above but below $5 billion is very small to make a dent versus poverty,” he added.
He was optimistic that 2012 could be a better year because of the investment inflows that are coming into the country.
“Definitely, we have to accelerate and we expect a drastic improvement in 2012.We can increase FDIs because we see movement of investors going to Asia, including the Philippines,” D’Aboville said.
On the review of the “Arangkada” initiatives, the team reported that 55 percent of its recommendations has been acted favorably by the government and 45 percent have not been started or moving backwards.
In his speech during the “Arangkada Philippines Forum: Moving Twice as Fast!,” D’ Aboville said, “We have to recognize the intimate, causal relationship between the restoration of decency and integrity in government, and the stability, consistency and predictability that such a condition imbues our economic life,” d’Aboville said.
“We cannot achieve poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth without resolving lingering problems of corruption and poor governance; and without strengthening and achieving a certain level of autonomy in the operation of key legal, regulatory and administrative institutions.”
According to d’Aboville, the current administration of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III was doing the correct thing by trying to restore decency and integrity in its governance.
The ECCP, two years ago, started the Integrity Initiative project that aims to assist the government combat corruption, provide a level playing field for investors, and minimize unemployment in the country.
Currently, the ECCP together with its partners has been able to sign more than 1,000 companies and 17 government agencies to the Integrity Pledge – the guiding principles of the Integrity Initiative.
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By: Bernie Cahile-Magkilat
Source: Manila Bulletin, Jan. 28, 2012
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