If crucial reforms made now, PH could be one of the fastest-growing economies in the world

Both the Citi 3G report and the Asian Development Bank’s Asia 2050 Report show how this is possible. In the ADB report, the Bank posits two scenarios: payoff of proactive actions vs. costs of inaction. Throughout the study, five key assumptions were made — if any of them don’t hold, there could be a catastrophic impact on Asia. The ADB classifies the Philippines as one of its 31 “Slow or Modest Growth, Aspiring Economies” but cautions that the country shows telltale signs of the middle income trap. In the best-case scenario (what they dubbed as the Asian Century), the 31 aspiring economies would succeed in becoming convergers by 2020. In the worst-case scenario, the 31 aspiring economies remain as non-convergers and will follow the pattern of Latin America in the past 30 years. Which scenario we end up in depends on how effectively the region is able to tackle policy and institutional agenda. The report also makes apparent that improvements in governance and institutional capacity is the prerequisite for overcoming all the risks and challenges. To download the whole report by ADB, click here.