The Aquino government has yet to complete the implementation of a package of reforms to lift the country to the level of newly industrializing country (NIC) by 2025.
Titled Arangkada Philippines, the reform package was initiated by the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in the Philippines last December 2010.
In his assessment made during the Arangkada Philippines assessment forum in a Pasay City hotel last Thursday, Rhickie Jennings, president of the American Chamber of Commerce, told participants that 55% percent of 471 specific reforms on a wide range of economic-related activities have at least been started, are now ongoing or substantially completed.
A little less than half or 45 percent of issues needing actions on the list are yet to be acted upon.
Details of the assessment report handed to media, however, indicated that the more substantial restructuring of the economy, critical policy reforms and issues on governance that urgently need to be addressed, were left hanging.
The need for more spade work in different segments of the productive economy and in the way things are being handled in the bureaucracy were brought into sharp focus by resource speakers and a battery of experts who shared their views during the forum.
Commenting on the slow pace of growth, former finance secretary and now co-chairman of the elite Makati Business Club Roberto de Ocampo asserted, “we can move twice as fast, but not this year. What we can do now is lay the groundwork for the economy to grow twice as fast in succeeding years.”
The central problem that has stunted growth, he pointed out, is lack of infrastructure.
“If there are three things that this administration must address, it is infrastructure, infrastructure and infrastructure,” he said.
With the economies of some of the country’s leading trading partners still in trouble, particularly the United States and Europe, much of the growth in the domestic economy in the near term will come from government spending in infrastructure projects, the one-time World Bank executive added.
De Ocampo called on leaders in government and captains of industry to come out with a common vision on where they want the country to go in the same manner as the more prosperous economies in East Asia drew up their niches in global economic order.
If the country wants to excel in tourism, it must determine to go into international marketing. In mining, it must go beyond just extracting raw materials like in gravel and sand operations but go into manufacturing end products out of the country’s minerals.
In the farm sector, De Ocampo rallied the sector to move into agro-industries, not simply confined to growing food.
Other must-do recommendations suggested by experts included the hammering out of a Philippine manufacturing strategy that includes agribusiness, linking domestic industries with export industries and diversification of industrial products.
A call was also made to make the Subic Freeport a real freeport to develop it as the main distribution port from Asia.
The JFC is optimistic that the Philippines will post an economic growth of as high as six percent in 2012 on the back of higher investments.
John Casey, president of the Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, said the additional effects of the now fast-tracked rollout of government spending programs and public-private partnership (PPP) program can also boost the economy.
“We must pick up the pace of foreign direct investment (FDI) to sustain the historically high economic growth in 2010. The Philippines has never achieved the levels of FDI that Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam have achieved,” he said during the Arangkada forum on Thursday.
Casey expresses hope that last year’s high level of Board of Investments (BoI) approvals and the record inflow of $1 billion in foreign funds into the Philippine Stock Exchange in the last two months are indicative of increasing levels of FDI in 2012 and in the coming years.
He said developing the identified seven big winner sectors can also generate more investments to the country. These sectors are infrastructure, agribusiness, business process outsourcing, creative industries, manufacturing and logistics, mining and tourism, medical travel and retirement.
The JFC believes that developing these seven key sectors can generate $75 billion in FDIs and 10 million jobs over the next 10 years.
“The Asian Century is well underway, and the Philippines must elevate its position to benefit from the foreign investment opportunities in the Seven Big Winners industry sectors. This also comes at a time when the impacts of multiple free trade agreements are starting to be felt across participating economies,” he said.
For his part, Hubert d’Aboville, president of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, said they are hopeful that the record high levels of over $8 billion new investments approved last year will be realized in construction and job creation in 2012.
He also cited the allocation for economic services to support the administration’s drive for inclusive and sustained economic growth.
“This is good news, and we trust that many things will move faster soon. We have talked about PPP for a very long time; let’s finally implement major projects this year,” d’Aboville said.
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Source: The Daily Tribune, Jan. 30, 2012
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