NEW YORK—“The Philippine economy is growing at a high rate and will continue to progress,” announced Dr. Bernardo Villegas, one of the Philippines’ most respected economists, at a gathering of businessmen and Filipino-American leaders last week. Dr. Villegas, Vice President of University of Asia & the Pacific led a private sector contingent from the Philippines, which is on a three-city investment roadshow in the United States, visiting Washington, DC, New York and San Francisco.
Villegas discussed the latest Philippine economic situation and the state of Philippine capital market. The Harvard-trained analyst shared the view of international bank HSBC, which recently came up with a report indicating that the Philippines could be the world’s 16th largest economy by 2050, surpassing many developed countries today. The same forecast last year listed the Philippines in the 43rd position.
“We have reached what the management people call “the tipping point,” he said, in terms of infrastructure development, economic policymaking and instituting good governance. He added that the slow and painful economic and social reforms that the Philippines had accomplished over the last 25 years were ready to bear fruit, making the Philippines ready for an economic take-off.
"The current administration is continuing what has been started by previous administrations by building on public-private partnerships and improving on various infrastructures. All these promise a high rate of growth in the next ten years. It is a matter of sustaining the rate of investments we have seen in the past six years,” Villegas added.
Jesus M. Zulueta, Jr., Managing Partner of ZMG Ward Howell spoke about the Philippines’ competitive advantage in global outsourcing, which made the country as the world’s no. 1 call center destination and a major player in the non-voice services.
According to Zulueta, the Philippines had 415,000 full-time jobs in voice/call centers in 2011, and it is projected to grow to 1.3 million employees in 2016 working in business process outsourcing (BPO) jobs. An additional 3.6 million people are indirectly employed in allied industries.
The BPO industry generated over $9 billion in revenues and roughly 70% of this amount or about $6.1 billion come from American companies.
“We have over 900 companies outsourcing jobs in the Philippines and we feel that we have just hit the tip of the iceberg. We see an increasing number of companies not only from the United States but also from Canada, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe,” Zulueta said.
Asked about President Barack Obama’s pronouncements during his State of the Union address, where he talked about “insourcing” and bringing the jobs back to America, Villegas was quick to reply.
“It’s an election year and we believe it is an empty boast, he also said that during his campaign. I don’t think it will happen. It was a motherhood statement,” Villegas said.
He explained that if Obama intends to tax American companies that outsource jobs to other countries, the President would be hurting the American economy more.
“The US will be in a recession for at least three more years, which means most of the companies here have very little chances of increasing their revenues. To protect their bottomline, common sense tells us that they have to reduce their costs, and the way to do that is to outsource their business services outside of the US,” Villegas added.
Bien Araw, Senior Vice President for Projects and Organization Development of Benguet Corp., highlighted the fact that the Philippines, which is one of the most mineralized countries in the world, rich in gold, copper and nickel, sits on a mining wealth worth about $840-billion. He shared the success stories of some mining companies in the Philippines and underscored that the country’s mining industry is open to 100% foreign ownership.
Isidro A. Consunji, President & CEO of DMCI Holdings, Inc., talked about the profile of the Philippine construction and real estate industries and the opportunities for foreign investors in infrastructure projects, real estate and government-sponsored public-private partnership projects such as airports, roads and bridges. He also identified the investment opportunities in the country’s energy sector.
Consul General Mario De Leon, in his remarks, said, “The timing for this investment roadshow cannot be much better. Europe is flirting with an economic crisis while the pace of US economic recovery is still very slow. The Philippines, as an emerging market, offers a viable destination for US capital and investments.”
The Philippine Consulate General of New York partnered with the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of New York (PACC) and PTIC in conducting Philippine Investment Roadshow which was attended by 65 CEOs and senior executives from companies with interests in banking, finance, mining, infrastructure, BPO and consulting.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(NYNJ Feb 3-9, 2012 Sec A pg.1)
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