INVEST in the Philippines. Invest in growth.
This was the call made by government officials during the Philippine Economic Briefing Wednesday at Marco Polo Plaza Hotel.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 7 Director Asteria Caberte showed the country’s strengths amid the economic storm.
These strengths include positive growth or 0.8 percent in the third quarter of this year, a resilient financial system, foreign reserves and a stable peso as cited by Moody’s Investors Service.
“Despite the politics that is staple fare in this country, we pulled together and stood resiliently against the fiercest storm to hit the global economy in recent history. This resilience is exactly what will help us sustain our growth in the time of recovery, amid the continuing challenges,” she said.
The country’s resiliency, said Neda 7 Director Marlene Rodriguez in a separate presentation, is due to strong OFW remittances that grew 4.2 percent in the third quarter and the effectiveness of the the government’s Economic Resiliency Plan that generated 22.5 percent growth in public construction and 7.5 percent growth in government consumption in the first three quarters of the year, among others.
Another factor for the Philippine’s resiliency is a strong financial system, which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said is the result of financial reforms instituted over the years to offload problem loans, expand assets, improve profitability and increase capital bases.
The BSP said that for the longer term, the performance of the economy will depend much on investment growth.
The BSP is spreading the word to overseas Filipinos and the public about the opportunities of investing in micro, small and medium enterprises.
“What we want to see going forward is the transformation of Filipino families from being consumers to regular savers, investors and even entrepreneurs,” said Rosabel Guerrero of the BSP department of economic statistics.
Caberte recommended potential sectors for investment, including the information technology, business process outsourcing, tourism, retirement, health and wellness, mining, renewable energy, infrastructure and construction and agri-business.
From January to September 2009, the amount of approved investments in the country reached P107 billion, the bulk of which went to real estate, renting and business activities, utilities sector, information technology (IT) services and manufacturing.
Big-ticket investments include two projects of Aboitiz Power in Makban and Tiwi, Green Power’s 17.5 megawatt biomass power generating plant, eight IT centers and one incubation building in Baguio, and DMCI mass housing project.
Caberte said Coca-Cola Company plans a billion-dollar expansion program for its facilities in the country while Hanjin Heavy Industries plans to infuse more capital in its Subic shipbuilding facility.
In Central Visayas, the amount of investments from January to September 2009 reached P5.6 billion, the bulk of which went to the Aegis PeopleSupport House, an IT-ecozone enterprise inside Asiatown IT Park in Lahug, Cebu.
“It is the BPO industry that has cushioned Cebu from the adverse effects of the global economic slowdown. There is a surge in BPO companies in the region that continued all throughout the global crisis,” said Caberte.
Apart from BPO, other sources of growth in the region are tourism, ecotourism and edu-tourism, health and wellness, loomweaving, and gifts toys and houseware.
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