A fresh start

“LEARN from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”- Albert Einstein
Forget the past and start anew.  This is perhaps a trend now as the world economy begins a new year.
In his speech before year 2011 ended last week, Obama expressed his confidence for an economic comeback for the United States.
Reflecting on a year defined by arguments over debts and cuts, President Obama has said he is hopeful for greater economic progress in 2012.
“And as we head into the new year, I’m hopeful that we have what it takes to face that change and come out even stronger – to grow our economy, create more jobs and strengthen the middle class,” Obama said during his holiday vacation in Hawaii.
As for the Philippine economy, coasting along is no longer an option.
2012 is a year where President Benigno Aquino III’s administration will focus on pushing the local economy to stand along powerhouse economies like that of the United States and China.
The administration, however received critical reviews from his critics who said his perceived obsession to prosecute his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and his feud with the judiciary took away his focus from more pressing economic pursuits.
While President Aquino was making advances in fighting corruption, his administration missed the target in boosting the economy in 2011.
The administration’s economic experts foretold a 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent growth for the Philippine economy with a target of 7 percent to 8 percent in 2011. But the economy grew only 3.6 percent in the first nine months of the year due to the administration’s weak spending and the global economic slowdown.
Putting figures aside, it stands to reason there is a healthy sense of optimism in the air, when it comes to assessing the economy as the Philippines enters a likely to be an eventful year.
The president, who intends to sustain a clean and transparent bureaucracy, was able to build on the gains of the anti-corruption campaign, and reduce poverty in 2012.
He also made good progress in practical fiscal management, which spawned P42 billion worth of savings, job creation, and higher rice production as the year came to a close. He noted that his government’s initiative to achieve national transformation succeeded in bringing reforms needed to revitalize the country.
The last two decades have witnessed improvements in other in the emerging market countries, such as India and Indonesia. Because of this, the Philippine economy whose been mired in endemic poverty now have a fighting chance of moving up.
As a developing and emerging country, the Philippines also hopes of a possible fresh start to cement existing development disparities and hamper their catch-up industrialization. The country is committed on reorganizing and surviving future financial distress, and in operating productively in the economy.
Meanwhile, to start the year right, the government will roll out P141.8-billion worth of infrastructure projects starting this month, a bid to pump prime the domestic economy, as announced by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced last January 3.
The funds, sourced from the 2012 national budget, will be used for construction and upgrade of roads, bridges, airports, seaports, classrooms, water supply system, irrigation system, and flood control projects this year according to Budget Secretay Florencio Abad.
The country’s economic competitiveness initiative is a bold undertaking – the first, potentially major in decades. There is no assurance of success and much hard negotiation lies ahead. A key ingredient will be firm, persistent political prodding from the top.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek Jan 4-6, 2012 Sec A pg.6)