More groups have taken it upon themselves to advance what they thought should be the economic agenda of the new president. Separately, the JFC (Joint Foreign Chambers) have offered the seven strategic industries that could generate billions in foreign direct investments and create millions of jobs over 10 years. And the backdrops to these efforts are the continuing negative assessments we are getting from international agencies: the World Bank, IMF, ADB, rating agencies, etc.
But we’re a free country and pulling these ideas together is always a challenge. We’ve lived through bad economic times many times over. We pride ourselves in being resilient. Yet, smart as we are, we have not moved the needle forward. To appreciate how much the world has gone ahead, the writer invites the rest of us to read the April 17th issue of The Economist re A special report on innovation in emerging markets.
We may want to borrow a page from the private sector when they deal with challenges, and that is, by pulling together a “cross-functional team”. They bring analysts and decision-makers together – analysts can craft plans; and decision-makers can raise their probability of (successful) execution! Of course, in the private sector smart people can miss it too, but they go bust – there are consequences!
The efforts of the JFC are probably more consistent with the private sector model. But we need our economists on board too. Should our economists work with the private sector, starting with the JFC? For instance, given our meager GDP and thus inability to generate the requisite funds for investment – from basic infrastructure of water, food and power to raising our productive and competitive capability – we can’t confine our economic blueprints to parochial options? Every nation that has achieved economic success leveraged the bigger world – and drastically reduced poverty!
We have local enterprises that have successfully ventured into the global arena. And our economists could work with them, e.g., Jollibee, Splash, Rota, Ayala, etc. In this day and age with the world as interconnected as it is, competition can’t be taken for granted. And thus we need to think in terms of developing compelling products and services that will find buyers in the global marketplace.
We need to go beyond being contract manufacturers or contract-service providers. The carabao has to be ahead of the cart. How? We may not have an R&D or product-development heritage but the Taiwans of the world did not have it too – but they were pragmatic to work with the more advanced countries of the world to learn the ropes.
We have to dig deep into ourselves to find out how we can get out of our shell – no man is an island. Our forefathers were brave and smart but they had to learn the hard way that our bolos could not win against the cal. 45!
But it’s a free world and we can opt for the status quo – save the third of us who are hungry?
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