Felis Año Nuebo!
The Issue:,/b The end of another difficult and challenging year right here in paradise.
Our View: With strong resolve, we can make the year 2001 a better one for all.
Still dazed by the Asian crisis, we weren’t sure what to make of this year either. Indeed, we’ve entered and exited the peaks and valleys of hardship in years past. Nothing compares with the receding year in terms of severity since 50-some years ago. We hope too that the economic decline has hit rock bottom.
With some hopeful measures, i.e., the Investment Incentive Act of 2000, there’s guarded hope that we would slowly revive major decline in revenue generation. Our painful bouts with mañana ought to serve as a lesson of the need to learn how to live in both good and bad times.
The challenges of the first quarter of this millennium and how we handle them would determine the future of these isles. We still are entrenched on federalization and provincial issues while the rest of the world has moved on signing digital agreements on free trade. This is how far we’ve lagged behind versus new economies in the Asia Pacific region.
Too, we hope that with President-Elect George W. Bush taking over the helm on Jan. 20, 2001, the confrontational relations we’ve had with the federal government would turn into one of constructive engagement. He’s a great man for these isles and has learned of our needs and aspirations through friends who have defended our interest on Capitol Hill. But we need to re-establish and forge greater working rapport with those he places at the US Department of Interior.
Yes, it has been a rough and often mind-numbing year. Over the next year, we need to rebuild bridges and ride on board our Ship of Hope to proactively take economic opportunities that promise to bring wealth and jobs creation to these isles. More so than ever before, next year should be a grand time to forge stronger working relationship between the public and private sectors. Sen mas, Felis Año Nuebo to one and all!
