The occasion will be the joint induction of officers of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), Philippines, Inc., the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport) and Port Users Confederation, Inc. (PUCI).
Leading the inductees are PCCI President Noemi Saludo, ECoP President Rene Y. Soriano, Philippines Inc. President Miguel B. Varela, Philexport President Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. and PUCI President Oscar Brillo.
The first woman president of PCCI, Saludo said the chamber is bent in further strengthening the small, medium enterprises (SMEs) and agricultural sectors as its topmost priorities. She said the SMEs sector is the country’s lifeblood that currently fuels and keeps the economy afloat. "Aside from the fact that the SMEs comprise some 95 percent of PCCI membership, the said sector also helps spur our country’s economic growth."
Saludo made it clear that PCCI is not endorsing any of the presidentiables come May 2004 elections.
As the voice of Philippine business, according to Saludo, PCCI is committed to inform its thousands of members about the plans of the next would-be administration. PCCI is the country’s largest business organization with 115 local chambers, 127 trade and industry associations and 27 bilateral business councils with some 20,000 direct and indirect SME members.
"We are duty-bound to serve as conduits between the presidential candidates and the business community so we can weigh their respective platforms before casting our votes. However, the new board still intends to keep PCCI apolitical," Saludo stressed.
ECoP President Rene Y. Soriano said they agreed to hold a joint induction knowing that while the national and local elections will be held on May 10, 2004 and the presidential candidates have bared their respective programs, the state of the economy between now and June 30 could be crucial to the country.
Soriano said only the President could put the people’s minds at ease about certain disturbing issues such as the cynicism of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the ability of the government to sustain the deficit reduction program due to the further erosion in the negative balance of the National Power Corporation (Napocor) and the hike in government spending.
Beside Napocor financial isssue, the IMF is apprehensive about the huge public sector financial requirements this year. Barring major improvement, a further increase in public indebtedness is believed inevitable, adversely affecting debt sustainability, it was pointed out. (E. T. Suarez)
