IT’S a cliché that media thrives on bad news and good news is a Pollyanic bore. It doesn’t get your adrenalin going like gory tales of crimes and deaths from disaster and coup attempts. But there are many ways to slant a story. The headlines about the "five most corrupt departments" for example, might also have given plaudits to the five least corrupt, the honor roll of the departments that put in systems to curb corruption. Those were the Department of Health, Social Welfare, Science and Technology, the BIR and the Office of the President.
There were also things to be proud about individual talents: The winners of the Southeast Asian Games, Miss International, and the 7-year-old Filipina who designed the logo for the Hong Kong conference of the World Trade Organization.
PGMA’s reforms begin to kick in and thanks also to the overseas workers remittances, the budget deficit is the smallest in four years. The peso is the strongest currency in Asia. IT services have brought in 41,000 jobs while the mining sector, which has just opened up because of the 2004 Supreme Court decision, is positioned to become the lead industry in short time, and meanwhile has provided 3,580 jobs – a mere beginning to what promises to be the leading growth industry this year. Funds released to micro finance borrowers have generated another 500,000 jobs and the 13 percent increase in tourist arrivals, a second growth industry, has provided 270,000 jobs in the tourist service sector.
Intel, which has been in the Philippines for over a quarter century, has just put finishing touches on its biggest assembly and testing plant. And Ford motor company is investing one billion dollars on a flexible fuel engine assembly plant that makes engines that will run on gasoline or gasoline mixed with 20 percent bioethanol. Because of Ford, for the first time the Philippines will be exporting cars in quantity.
Everyone enjoys the humor in the Philippines, claim to fame as the world’s leader in texting (just watch all the busy texters in any restaurant or mall) sending 3.5 million text messages per day. The telecom industry is booming with 11 million cellphones in use.
While mining is just beginning to develop since the Supreme Court ruling allowing foreign ownership and jobs are still minimal, the Philippines has already been voted the best place to invest in mining, by the Mining Journal.
A problem that caused projects to be abandoned in the past, that of matching funds for Overseas Development Assistance (ODAs) has mercifully been re-thought. The Philippines is cleaning up its books especially with Japan which is a main source of the ODAs, and dropped projects where there are no matching funds available from the government and also those projects where alternative funding is available. Clearing the loan portfolio in this fashion means that the Philippines is ready to tap Japan again. And it has already applied for a fresh loan of 1.2 billion for Mindanao which Japan has approved. This project has counterpart funding, which has already been set aside, considering its political and security importance. It is designed to jumpstart economic development in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to promote peace and stability in that region.
According to NEDA, the first part of the fund will be used for small-scale infrastructure, health and education services, and development of post-harvest facilities for 200 barangays. The second stage will include intra-regional infrastructure and construction of a vocational training center and a hospital. The remaining third of the fund will be used to set up auxiliary programs to support the major projects. The overall project will require the cooperation of LGUs, consultants, and training in project management.
The major problem the country faces this new year, not just the Philippines, but globally, is of course the price of imported oil. The Philippines fortunately has a number of options in alternate sources of energy which will be discussed in a later column.
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