We are not quite like Afghanistan. Still, within the region, there is only one nation left from a competitive standpoint. The rest has left us behind. In other words, we’re just a few rungs above a “failed nation.”
Thank God for OFW remittances and the BPO industry. That’s only the short of it. And the long? Globalization, which we like to deride because of (1) “Pinoy abilidad” or (2) parochialism or (3) “pwede na ‘yan” or (4) all the above?
Sadly, they reveal how much a myopic value system defined this proud nation.
But the momentum is not in our favor. And it is beyond the pandemic, i.e., Covid-19 revealed every nation’s weakness.
“The government can no longer rely on the protectionist instruments of the past and must now muster more positive, enabling measures.
“The focus on industrial catch-up is motivated by the prolonged stagnation of the Philippine industry and its profound impact on the country’s labor market.
“Unlike developed countries whose workers have primarily transitioned away from agriculture to industrial and high-skilled services employment, workers in developing countries such as the Philippines have been moving out of low-productivity agriculture towards low-skilled jobs.
“The services sector account for 61% of gross domestic product and six out of 10 workers, but a third in low-paying jobs.
“Meanwhile, elements of its exports sector with a competitive advantage and the number of exporting companies have been declining, making the Philippines a ‘market of consumer goods rather than a hub for manufacturing exports.’
“The country can explore several paths towards economic diversification and upgrading, which includes ‘leapfrogging’ to high-productivity and aiming for more sophisticated goods by adopting high technology over the medium to long term.” [Diversification, Jobs and the COVID-19 Recovery.pdf (un.org)]
The blog purposely raises the above – from the UN policy brief – repeatedly because the Philippine elite and chattering classes aren’t doing it.
Why? Denial is a great defense mechanism.
That’s why in a recent posting, the blog gave room to “How the ‘Bobos’ [bourgeois bohemians] Broke America.” [David Brooks, The Atlantic, Sep 2021]
“The bobos didn’t set out to be an elite, dominating class. We just fit ourselves into a system that rewarded a certain type of achievement and then gave our children the resources that would allow them to prosper in that system too. But blind to our power, we have created enormous inequalities—financial inequalities and more painful inequalities of respect. The task before us is to dismantle the system that raised us.”
Here’s to paraphrase David Brooks, the task before us is to toss our caste system. Yes, the system that raised us.
But the momentum is not in our favor.
“The failure of Philippine education is to develop the ability to think, meet new situations, and solve problems one encounters in real life.”
Here’s a quote from an earlier posting: “Recall George, Fr. George Gorospe: ‘No human formulation of ‘reality,’ no philosophical explanation of human experience can say: ‘I have grasped its entirety and meaning.’ Reality is too rich and is continuously changing; it can’t fall under a set of categories.
“Hence, there is a need today of a more dynamic and more existential philosophy inspired by the Neo-Thomist revival of the authentic thought of St. Thomas, i.e., it is not a ‘closed system’ but remains ‘open’ to the valid insights of other philosophies. For example, to the contribution of contemporary phenomenology and existentialism.” [Christian Renewal of Filipino Values, Vitaliano R. Gorospe; Philippine Studies vol. 14, no. 2, 1966; Ateneo de Manila University]
As Fr. Gorospe explained, even if students are exposed to the dynamism of reality in the classroom, once outside, they live out our world: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.
Then consider: “If only words can fuel a power plant, we should have no problems. Unfortunately, unless actions follow ‘words,’ the danger of power shortages or brownouts exists. Good intentions behind new laws also don’t amount to much.
“I viewed the symposium of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) on energy security, and I didn’t hear a thing I haven’t heard before. The numbers are ‘bad,’ the solutions are logical, but there is no hope unless the government moves.
“For a while, we thought the economic slowdown due to the pandemic lockdowns might allow us to catch up. But recent yellow and red alerts deliver the message that we have no time to fool around as usual.
“Demand has started going up as restrictions are relaxed. Right now, we are skating on relatively thin ice in terms of reserves.
“Our power plants are getting old and less reliable, explaining forced outages. We should plan way ahead, given how long it takes to get regulatory approval to put up new power plants. Otherwise, power failures will become something Filipinos are doomed to accept.
“Then there are debates on what power plants to build. Coal-fired power plants now provide baseload capacity. But coal has been demonized, with some good reasons, so that our publicity-conscious Energy secretary declared a moratorium on more coal-fired plants.
“Problem is big brother doesn’t tell us what we will do in place of coal-fired baseload plants. Even Sen. Win Gatchalian, who agrees with the coal ban, laments that the Department of Energy has not provided him a transition plan with the details of how it will proceed with no disruptions.” [“Words, words, words,” Boo Chanco, DEMAND AND SUPPLY, The Philippine Star, 13th Aug 2021]
See below; to divine our power needs, we must be both tactical and strategic.
Here’s again a quote from an earlier posting: “The character of creation and the universe is that of dynamism and interdependence. Human undertakings are subsets of larger sets, e.g., humankind thrives courtesy of the photosynthesis phenomenon.
“In other words, there is the ‘big picture.’ That beyond ‘tactical’ is ‘strategic’ thinking.
“How do we Filipinos then figure out how to thrive as a nation?
“Recall what Mahathir said to us: You don’t have to love your former colonizer. But beg for money and technology. We are poor nations. We cannot go it alone. Moreover, he knew the “big picture.” While he zoomed in on KL – made it the priority over his hometown – he zoomed out to the big picture: to relentlessly drive Malaysia’s growth and development.”
As the blog asserts, we don’t have a track record in successfully delivering against complex undertakings. And, sadly, we are nowhere near overcoming the dilemma.
Because the GPS model that the blog speaks to often isn’t easily transportable to the real world: Where are we; Where do we want to be; How do we get there.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
And that’s why the blog raises a range of examples often — from a small, new restaurant co-owned by a nephew to the Mahathir successful leadership with a lot else in between. But they won’t get traction if we keep to a frozen mind.
In the social sciences, they call it the “unfreezing exercise.” That for the mind to take in new learnings, we must first unfreeze it.
I remember the late Anacleto del Rosario, my mentor and the first Philippine marketing consultant and co-founder of PANA (Philippine Association of National Advertisers.) He also brought Edward de Bono, the father of “Lateral Thinking,” and Louis A. Allen, the management guru, to the Philippines.
And while conducting his seminars, he would have a glass filled with water and an empty one in front of the group. And as if on cue, he would take a pitcher of water and pour it on the already filled glass for water to spill over. “If that’s how much knowledge you have in your brain, everything thing else just goes to waste.”
Our overarching goal is to traverse poverty to prosperity rapidly. That is how our neighbors did it. The Western focus on fiscal and monetary interventions did not influence them.
Why? They knew they were underdeveloped, unlike the wealthy Western nations.
And adds the UN policy brief: “A pure laissez-faire approach could make catch-up growth even more unattainable. For example, market failures and externalities cumulatively worsen and further discourage investments on (1) knowledge creation and (2) technological advancement.”
In other words, if a Philippine leader has to be a strongman, they must model after Lee or Mahathir or Deng – and not like Marcos or Duterte. Even PNoy did not run with the ball of Arangkada, for instance, that the JFC did not mince words to assess his performance. The blog had high hopes when PNoy started his term because the JFC presented Arangkada on a silver platter.
Let’s hold it right there.
One more time with feeling: Our neighbors sought to traverse poverty to prosperity rapidly. They were not influenced by the Western focus on fiscal and monetary interventions – because they were underdeveloped, unlike wealthy Western “laissez-faire” nations.
Unsurprisingly, they awed the West – and called them “Asian Tigers.”
What then? We cannot keep to our myopic value system – aka our caste system – because we won’t have the chance – ever – to be the next Asian Tiger.
And here’s something the blog keeps repeating: “We must generate much more economic output.
“And we need it in a hurry, like yesterday. That is why the blog has raised the imperative to raise Philippine GDP by $200 billion rapidly. That is what the IRR for CREATE and SIPP must deliver.
“Why? To leapfrog the economic output of our neighbors — which is why they were able to put poverty in the rearview mirror.”
“Question: Do we have to amend the Constitution to leverage CREATE and SIPP to (1) put us on equal footing with our neighbors; (2) attract the suitable foreign money and technology; (3) that will aggressively drive our export receipts – i.e., benchmark against Samsung Vietnam because Vietnam arrested poverty?
“That must be the debate amongst our economic managers and legislators, not to keep to a 6%-7% GDP growth rate mantra. “Recall the GPS model: Where are we; Where do we want to be; How do we get there.
“We must free ourselves from this prolonged stagnation of the Philippine industry. Not sing hosanna to our top companies.
“We haven’t cut it!”
How do we learn from Mahathir? How can we be both tactical and strategic?
For example, setting our goal “To raise Philippine GDP by $200 billion rapidly” will clear the cobwebs in our heads.
Let’s toss our “sabog” instinct for now.
And that’s why the above questions: Do we have to amend the Constitution to leverage CREATE, and SIPP to (1) put us on equal footing with our neighbors; (2) attract the suitable foreign money and technology; (3) that will aggressively drive our export receipts – i.e., benchmark against Samsung Vietnam because Vietnam arrested poverty?
If we are brainstorming, we would ask: What products will aggressively drive our export receipts? Think of Samsung Vietnam and how they deliver more economic benefits than our top eight companies combined.
That is also what the UN policy brief is saying. We must leapfrog to high productivity and aim for more sophisticated goods by adopting high technology over the medium to long term.
And Vietnam translated that by luring Samsung smartphones and then Apple AirPods.
That is how we must rack our brains – not doing 50 or so industry road maps.
Once we figure out the products that will deliver us $200 billion, we must plot how to attract suitable foreign money and technology.
And if we stack the products that will generate the $200-billion number together with our current GDP drivers, we should be able to figure out (1) what we need infrastructure-wise and (2) where we need them, and (3) including the power-source profile.
Let’s pause and ponder.
We cannot divine our power needs if we don’t first establish the platform of products and industries to generate the requisite GDP.
And again, from a prior posting: “The pursuit of freedom and the free market takes a village.
Let’s then look at “Ambisyon Natin: 2040: It is a picture of the future, a set of life goals and goals for the country. It is different from a plan, which defines the strategies to achieve the goals. It is like a destination that answers the question, ‘Where do we want to be?’. It describes how to get to the destination; AmBisyon Natin 2040 is the vision that guides the future and is the anchor of the country’s plans.”
And NEDA commits to translate Ambisyon into specific goals and milestones for the “next steps.”
And that is why the blog offers the above.
And let’s not forget the UN policy brief and how it explains how our neighbors did it.
“Leapfrogging is possible in the presence of certain critical conditions: (1) a forward-looking coherent vision centered on bold ambitions; (2) integrated government interventions galvanized by a lead agency with strong coordinating and monitoring powers; (3) intense policy learning to speedily correct errors; (4) autonomous, high-quality and ‘long-termist’ bureaucracy; (5) close monitoring of progress and survival of domestic firms; and (6) tight collaboration with the private sector and other stakeholders.”
We are not quite like Afghanistan. Still, within the region, there is only one nation left from a competitive standpoint. The rest has left us behind. In other words, we’re just a few rungs above a “failed nation.”
And the momentum is not in our favor.
Our overarching goal is to traverse poverty to prosperity rapidly. That is how our neighbors did it.
The Western focus on fiscal and monetary interventions did not influence them.
And teeing up 50 or so industry road maps has not brought home the bacon.
Why? Our caste system explains our myopic value system – and has brought us closer to a failed nation.
Gising bayan!
No comments:
Post a Comment