Engaging with the outside world

As we continue to look beyond our borders and engage with the outside world, we would be the better for it. Our economic managers are hearing from the British about their experience in managing PPPs (private-public partnerships); while the Japanese are sharing with us how we could be preferred by investors. (Our prayers go with the Japanese as they deal with nature’s fury.) More of these engagements would hopefully encourage us to revisit our assumptions. It is human nature to stay with one’s assumptions: in the US there are the ‘parochials’ [which the writer’s daughter insists she’s not, though from a parochial school like the writer] and the COWs (citizens of the world). The parochials would explain why only a third of Americans have passports – although up from the teens. Which means two-thirds can’t even travel to Canada. And many have not ‘traveled west beyond the Mississippi‘– and oblivious that Defense ($680 B), Social Security and Medicare are behind the trillion-dollar plus US deficit. And they believe the US is spending 25% of the budget on foreign aid but would agree to 10% – it’s less than 1% and a shame! [The writer is a US taxpayer, and has represented USAID/IESC.]

Did corruption come from both sides in the NAIA 3 project? And now we have the Ro-Ro ports deal which is under scrutiny? It takes two to tango? But there are three sides to a controversy – there’s the right side which neither party acknowledges? Love begets love: we can demonstrate that we are upright people, no-nonsense, no room for corruption – bringing integrity, maturity, hard work and creativity in our dealings with foreign investors?

Are our neighbors better than us? Not really [the writer covered the region for 10 years and worked very closely with them] but they have engaged with the outside world more than we’ve done. And which explains why foreign investors prefer them. And so it is delightful that the Agriculture Department is teaming up with Nestlé, says Manila Standard, to revive the coffee industry. The writer is delighted to read about it – it could bring plenty of positives, but we must we aware that we’re competing with countries like Mexico and Columbia. And setting for ourselves higher expectations is good for our psyche and the human spirit.

To be a bigger producer means we have to think big and partnering with the world’s largest food company (from Switzerland) is a promising option. (See http://www.nestle.com/Media/NewsAndFeatures/Pages/Nescafe-Plan-underway-in-Colombia.aspx) Within the industry they invest the most in R&D. [The writer doesn’t know anyone at Nestlé]. They work with local farmers but their operations are large-scale. Beyond the capacity to invest, they put their money where their mouth is: they pursue state-of-the-art technologies, are aggressive in innovation, they invest in talent, product development and markets. Put simply, they’d be ideal foreign investors because they bring the building blocks of competitiveness. We may have healthy savings but we need more than that, e.g., competitiveness – so that we may be able to optimize current (FTAs) foreign trade agreements, for example?

It appears San Miguel – and they could benchmark against Nestlé, in the same manner that Siemens has been measuring themselves against GE – is partnering with Luisita given their vision of large-scale agribusiness, reports Manila Standard. To be truly competitive, partnership of such scale is not a surprising path for a giant food and beverage enterprise like San Miguel. But then again, they have to contend with our legal system, if the Luisita deal is to happen. It brings to mind the ‘80s, when the Americans finally realized that the Japanese were beating their brains out in manufacturing, and could only sigh: “The Japanese are smart to produce more engineers while we produce more lawyers”.

"It’s convenient here because you speak English," Japanese chamber vice-president Nobuo Fujii said in a telephone interview. But for factories, high energy costs [which is echoed by the electronics industry] in the Philippines "is just one of the headaches", reports Business World. "Inadequate infrastructure, lack of clustering or development of related industries and ... problems with legal operation" were the most common concerns in the Philippines . . .” The issues the Japanese are raising are right up the alley of our economic managers, and legal community? We will be the better for it the more we engage with the outside world?