‘Dutch disease’ redux

‘Starting with the end in view’ is how enterprises become global competitors – and Apple is one and why it's not surprising that they beat the competition with products relevant to 21^st century lifestyle. What is the end view for our auto industry? We want to be more than local assemblers? What specifically – what elements will define that end view? What model is inspiring us? What timelines will it entail? What is a realistic intermediate goal? And then the message to Toyota ought to be: is their proposal moving us up and closer to that end goal? We don't need another ‘'Dutch disease' – or to embrace stop-gap measures, like we do with OFW remittances and subsidies?

It appears the Aquino Administration is engaging the auto industry to participate and support its new strategic initiatives. Unfortunately, Toyota appears unprepared to meet the program's investment and employment-generation requirements? What about bringing in higher value-added technology? And so do we simply allow them to meet the investment requirements under the old program, indeed a more modest investment? Foreign investment does not require us to beg – it demands integrity and propriety from both sides, a win-win proposition!

And the Chinese could inspire us: China demonstrated lateral thinking in their efforts to attract foreign investments. They would demand equity participation in manufacturing-based investments and specify local and export hurdles, for instance. But given their limited capital resources in the beginning, they allowed the creation – and 100% ownership – of holding companies by foreigners to encourage greater investments; and they brought into the country needed technology, R&D and manufacturing capability – and more!

The sad thing about poverty is it undermines the human spirit – the apex of human nature: ‘man is the true measure of himself’; ‘he is limited only by his imagination’. And poor as we are, has poverty in fact taken its toll – thus we struggle to call upon our human spirit? The US and Singapore – way above most countries in terms of per capita income – are both creations of the human spirit, and inherently imperfect? They're not natives to their lands and don't have the richness of Western European history and its glorious and proud past, for instance. Belgian friends have asked: is it the past which they don't have that makes them more forward-looking?

This blog often talks about Eastern Europeans – many of them, arguably, didn't have much of the human spirit despite the euphoria post the fall of the Berlin Wall? Decades of restrictive communist rule narrowed and shortened their view of the world and of life and their future? The writer would spend plenty of time to encourage his Eastern European friends to look ahead – because if they were to be equipped to compete against Western world-beaters, they needed lots of the human spirit.

How can we, Filipinos, call upon the human spirit? Because of our bias to be ‘inclusive’ as opposed to ‘being single-minded’, do we unwittingly pursue marginalized efforts that encourage compromises – the heart of our weakness that is corruption? Thus respect for time and space that engenders efficiency and productivity is taken for granted, if you will? The parking facility in a premium property development is one example. Regrettably, our way of life does not discipline us to be globally competitive? And until we do, the reality that ‘competitive and disciplined’ are two sides of the same coin won't appear to us as such?

And so cause-oriented groups are promoting a small-scale approach to Philippine agribusiness? Even ex-socialist Eastern Europe has learned the reality of sustainability. Sunflower growers, for example, have developed large-scale mechanized farms geared to attain competitive levels of efficiency and productivity. Their wine industry is still relatively small, but optimally sized vineyards have sprouted mirroring California's wine region. And working with Western interests, they have raised the quality of their wines. Efficiency, productivity and competitiveness are stirring their agribusiness efforts. But human as they are, they're not exempt from the temptations of the low-lying fruit!

There is no perfect model, no perfect country and no perfect people. And unless we unleash our most superior weapons – the human spirit – we won’t prove equal to the task!