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Missed Opportunities
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Posted on May 04 1999
While we strangle and stifle economic growth with piles of protectionist laws, the Philippines liberalizes investment policies to lure lasting investments to her shores despite the Asian crisis.
As recently as last week, senior American executives have chosen the Republic of the Philippines as their first choice to expand their business operations because of her strong performance compared to other countries in Asia.
Delegates said that liberalization is the key to the region’s sustainable economic recovery. The American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore “relayed this message to President Joseph Estrada during their meeting with him at the presidential residence”. They also informed the President that they are “conducting a trade mission in the Philippines to explore future business opportunities”.
President Estrada has committed to “pursue the liberalization and deregulation policies of the previous administration and has asked Congress to pass several priority economic measures to encourage more investments here”. The delegation comprises of 1,400 members and aims to demonstrate the high level of US business commitment in the region.
What the NMI needs to do immediately is repeal all strangling laws that have done nothing but soothe the ego of politicians while simultaneously drilling a huge black hole in the local coffers. Until the NMI abolishes all strangling laws and learns to reason out the long term consequence of public policies would we be able to lure lasting future investments. And until both federal and local policy instability are filed in the ash heap of history, there isn’t much hope for any further investments in these isles.
We need not remind politicians and bureaucrats that our performance in this department has been riddled with foot in mouth. It is for this reason that the NMI must begin employing the use of Think Tanks to guide its efforts in mapping-out the economic future of these isles. It’s think tanks who are equipped with the academic and professional wherewithals who could aid the NMI in this regard with journalistic mind set. Shall we?
