“Agriculture sector to go hi-tech”, reads a Vietnamese local news report. Vietnam is gearing up to: “Phase out small-scale agriculture through the introduction of new technologies that are expected to result in higher yields and more competitive farm produce . . . part of a well-thought out effort to industrialize the agriculture sector . . . and reach specific ambitious economic targets that call for encouraging businesses in identified strategic provinces . . .
“A service network to cater for hi-tech agriculture will be established, with brokerage, technical consultancy, equipment supply and product consumption support services . . . Incentives will be offered to businesses covering R&D, importation of technology, human resources overseas training . . . Lands will be optimally sized . . . Government will erect specific infrastructure needs in targeted provinces . . . It acknowledges past failed pilot efforts due to inefficiencies; and because the country’s bio-technology is underdeveloped, among others. The new initiative will link hi-tech agriculture and bio-technology . . .“ (The writer read this after he had traveled to Cambodia, and was told of one of Pol Pot’s failures: the commune system.)
How can we top that? By industrializing agriculture too yet being two steps ahead, i.e., going to agri-business, and all the way to branded, packaged goods! (But is grains importation taking our eye away from the ball, holding our agriculture industry hostage and thus failing – thankfully, media is at least keeping the issue alive?)
The Vietnam government is likewise eyeing bureaucracy and targeting 5,400 or 30% of administrative procedures affecting individuals and enterprises, including regulations that conflict with each other. They expect to improve efficiency and reduce costs by 30%. The Vietnamese are clear thinkers, defining their goals in precise terms, and as importantly, are learning from their mistakes? And are driven?
“I will die if I don’t work hard. This week is Chinese New Year but I can’t tell you not to visit Hanoi during our holiday. My family and friends respect me though for working on a holiday. I own a motorbike like most everyone; it will take me 7 years before I can buy a car. As students we’re young and ignorant and don’t take education seriously. But now that I need to work in order to survive, I aspire to be like a Malaysian and then like a Singaporean, sooner than later.”
Millions of Filipino OFWs can relate to this young Vietnamese. Yet, there are visitors to the Philippines who wonder: outside the OFWs and our professionals and entrepreneurs, are we as driven as others? The writer has been asked a few times how unemployed Filipinos could survive. In jest he would say that we’re like the Italians and the Irish, and lately unemployed young Americans who have gone back home. Given our extended family structure, it is not an issue at all! But what are they really asking: is one of our greatest assets, our liability as well, i.e., too much of a good thing is actually bad?
And OFW remittances are too much of a good thing, i.e., our robust foreign exchange reserves and stable currency are masking the deep hole we’re in – while giving the powers-that-be the means to exercise influence-peddling with impunity, e.g., grains importation? And why the ADB says we’re suffering from Dutch Disease – not unlike building our house upon the sand?
An op-ed columnist summarizes how we view change: “this is in fact a society that is resistant to change”! That is what the writer dreads most about the country – because resistance to change is the common denominator of failed economies, i.e., they’re broke but didn’t fix them! Like it’s the 21st century and we’re still tolerating rotating brownouts? Fool us once and you’re a fool; fool us twice and we’re the fools!
“A service network to cater for hi-tech agriculture will be established, with brokerage, technical consultancy, equipment supply and product consumption support services . . . Incentives will be offered to businesses covering R&D, importation of technology, human resources overseas training . . . Lands will be optimally sized . . . Government will erect specific infrastructure needs in targeted provinces . . . It acknowledges past failed pilot efforts due to inefficiencies; and because the country’s bio-technology is underdeveloped, among others. The new initiative will link hi-tech agriculture and bio-technology . . .“ (The writer read this after he had traveled to Cambodia, and was told of one of Pol Pot’s failures: the commune system.)
How can we top that? By industrializing agriculture too yet being two steps ahead, i.e., going to agri-business, and all the way to branded, packaged goods! (But is grains importation taking our eye away from the ball, holding our agriculture industry hostage and thus failing – thankfully, media is at least keeping the issue alive?)
The Vietnam government is likewise eyeing bureaucracy and targeting 5,400 or 30% of administrative procedures affecting individuals and enterprises, including regulations that conflict with each other. They expect to improve efficiency and reduce costs by 30%. The Vietnamese are clear thinkers, defining their goals in precise terms, and as importantly, are learning from their mistakes? And are driven?
“I will die if I don’t work hard. This week is Chinese New Year but I can’t tell you not to visit Hanoi during our holiday. My family and friends respect me though for working on a holiday. I own a motorbike like most everyone; it will take me 7 years before I can buy a car. As students we’re young and ignorant and don’t take education seriously. But now that I need to work in order to survive, I aspire to be like a Malaysian and then like a Singaporean, sooner than later.”
Millions of Filipino OFWs can relate to this young Vietnamese. Yet, there are visitors to the Philippines who wonder: outside the OFWs and our professionals and entrepreneurs, are we as driven as others? The writer has been asked a few times how unemployed Filipinos could survive. In jest he would say that we’re like the Italians and the Irish, and lately unemployed young Americans who have gone back home. Given our extended family structure, it is not an issue at all! But what are they really asking: is one of our greatest assets, our liability as well, i.e., too much of a good thing is actually bad?
And OFW remittances are too much of a good thing, i.e., our robust foreign exchange reserves and stable currency are masking the deep hole we’re in – while giving the powers-that-be the means to exercise influence-peddling with impunity, e.g., grains importation? And why the ADB says we’re suffering from Dutch Disease – not unlike building our house upon the sand?
An op-ed columnist summarizes how we view change: “this is in fact a society that is resistant to change”! That is what the writer dreads most about the country – because resistance to change is the common denominator of failed economies, i.e., they’re broke but didn’t fix them! Like it’s the 21st century and we’re still tolerating rotating brownouts? Fool us once and you’re a fool; fool us twice and we’re the fools!
Other countries like China are merging biotechnology with agriculture to provide higher yields. Interesting takes on the economy. Please drop by my blogs when you can.
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