Obama took his out when he decided he wouldn’t be a victim; and not surprising he won the biggest job in the world. Have we long ago decided that we’re victims – of foreign domination, politics and oligarchy? And thus not surprising, as Business World reports: “the Philippines will not outperform its neighbors, the World Bank said . . . While East Asia’s developing economies will recover from the global downturn this year . . . The Philippines needs to ramp up investment and boost its competitiveness”.
But that is old news and should not be a surprise? Or did we think that we were on the right economic track (OFW remittances>robust foreign exchange reserves>stable to strong peso . . . yet: underdeveloped>rising poverty>patronizing leadership>oligarchy?) when staring us in the face were neighbors with far greater investments!
How did we miss that – because we’re not like race horses? For instance, poorer Vietnam’s gross investment is at 42.5 % of their GDP against our 14.3% – not surprising given that they have attracted $47.37B in foreign direct investments, more than twice our $22.9B. And thus are more competitive, with exports at $57B v. our $37B. Their poverty rate is already lower at 12.3% to our 32.9%. Ergo: to address poverty, we must be single-mindedly focused on raising investment in order to lift our competitiveness . . . and hence enlarge our economic pie! We can’t afford to be less than laser-like in pursuing such a gigantic task!
We’re a poor country and need foreign investment. But we choose to see otherwise – and unwittingly, are creating an oligarchy? In the history of nations, when the few control an economy, oligarchy is the natural outcome. And so Gorbachev is railing against his country’s blinders – they remain an oligarchy, not a modern, developed economy?
Competitiveness comes from greater and greater investments – i.e., economies of scale, technology, innovation, market leadership. And given that we’ve starved if not cut ourselves from foreign investments we are akin to a disabled ship in the sea of global competition? Thus, the efforts of the foreign chambers to identify 7 key industries that will drive and elevate our economy must be taken seriously by our economic managers and national leadership. Crony capitalism will turn off foreign investors.
What we sorely need is to inject competitiveness in our (economic development) psyche and demonstrate that to foreign investors. For example, we want creative investors – not simply investors who throw money around and play footsies with influence peddlers – and will partner with them because they have a higher propensity to succeed. They have access to cheaper capital because of their track record. That means they are pursuing truly globally competitive businesses; and can demonstrate that their product architecture is designed to deliver higher valued-added products or services – they have a differentiating, competitive edge and thus capture and sustain their target markets. For example: in manufacturing, how will they move up the value chain from semi-conductors? In BPOs, how will they move up from call centers? Etc.
Did the writer just missed it or are our major newspapers aiding and abetting our wearing of blinders? Did their news reports cherry-pick the assessments of the World Bank and the international rating agency about the state of our economy? In fairness, the business periodicals and columnists did not. We don’t want to spread bad news? In the old Eastern Europe, they called that propaganda – or why they still seethe in anger every time they talk about how the old regime added insult to their injury!
It’s high time we be like race horses – and focus on winning the race of our lives, economic prosperity for Filipinos?
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