Embassy Corner
The Philippines Looks Forward To 2009
Excerpts from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Speech
During the Vin D’Honneur, Rizal Hall, Malacanang
20 January 2009
Happy New Year to all of you!
2008 was a year for the history books. The global financial turmoil spread and jeopardized the well-being of billions of people across the world. It was a crisis year for two-thirds of the world.
In the Philippines, we avoided the full brunt of the economic downturn. We kept the crisis at bay – thanks to the fiscal, economic and structural reforms we implemented in the past – even while it was unpopular to do so. As an economist, I also know that things can turn quickly. That is why we are planning for better days.
We took the rice issue head on and wrestled it to the ground. We revitalized our agricultural modernization program and target self-sufficiency in rice within five years. We also strove for greater energy independence through intensified oil exploration and the greater use of geothermal, biofuel and renewable energy. We are nearing 100 percent self-sufficiency in using indigenous sources for electric power generation.
Moving forward: we are not complacent. An Economic Resiliency Plan in the amount of 300 billion pesos (6 billion US$) is in the offing to pump-prime the economy. The Plan aims to upgrade infrastructure, expand social protection and ensure sustainable growth in the midst of the global economic crisis.
We are upbeat that our sound economic management and our measures will see us through the tough global times. The international community shares our confidence. Fitch underscored that our economy remains “reasonably healthy.” Credit Suisse announced that Philippine macroeconomic risk is lowest. Standard and Poor’s compared our country to an island of relative calm amid the stormy seas of global economic uncertainty. The Bank of New York Mellon said,” The Philippines is inherently strong, a potential beneficiary of these financial woes.” JP Morgan agreed, “The Philippines is in a relatively strong position to weather the global downturn with the economy driven by private consumption and services, which are less vulnerable to external shocks.”
Because of our financial reforms and sound fiscal management since 2001 when I assumed the Presidency, our economy has posted uninterrupted growth over 36 quarters. Growth that has brought down the rate of poverty; growth that has brought up average annual new employment, growth that has supported 7 million micro entrepreneurs, and growth and revenue enhancement measures that have given us 100 billion pesos more in financial resources each year.
Thus we have been able to build the most roads, from highways to farm-to-market roads; the most ports, from modern airports to the Roll-On Roll-Off (RORO) system spanning Mindanao to Luzon; the most barangays electrified; the most classrooms; three salary increases for teachers; the most scholarships by far for high school, college, and post-graduate degrees in science and engineering; billions for pesos for training – not just millions as in the past; the most land for our indigenous peoples; and decent homes for our workers at 6 percent interest – the lowest rate ever.
Health insurance now covers 74 percent of the population, public hospitals are being upgraded, and the poor can buy essential medicines at half the price of year 2000. Our social services now include a 10 billion peso budget for targeted cash payments to the poorest of the poor conditioned on their children going to school.
We have new industries like BPO, a sunrise sector that will continue to boom as global cost-cutting is transformed into outsourcing and off shoring. Our increased budget for science and technology research and development is beginning to generate exportable products with high income potential when things get better for the world.
To advance peace and progress in Mindanao, as in the past, we hope to be able to count on the support of our partners in the International Monitoring Team – Brunei, Japan and Libya – Malaysia who has been an ardent facilitator, our other friends in the OIC, in Europe, and in the U.S.
We are one of the vibrant democracies in the world. Our commitment to human rights remains paramount even in the midst of active insurgencies and other threats to national security. Last year, the U.N. Human Rights Council conducted its periodic review of the situation here. The President of the Council lauded the Philippines as “outstanding” in our transparent, consultative and comprehensive report.
The economy will be the central focus of our government and advancing the peace process in Mindanao my personal commitment in 2009.
I prefer to look to a brighter future for the Philippines, and indeed for the entire world. Let us hope that this year finds all of us living in peace, prosperity and harmony.
Mabuhay!
04:00 PMHigh Time To Invest In Philippine Properties
All of our kababayans who went home for the holidays, as I did, will attest to one thing: infrastructure in the Philippines is booming – our condominiums and skyscrapers are ultra-modern, and the malls and shopping centers in Manila are among the best in the world.
This is not an exaggeration. I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel widely due to my work with the Foreign Service, and I bear witness to the fact that the property developments that have hit the reclaimed Bay Areas in Pasay and Manila, Makati Greenbelt, Fort Bonifacio and Rockwell, combined with the myriad of restaurants, stores, pubs, theaters and entertainment they house, stand out as among the best in the world.
Two factors that are almost unique to the Philippines– healthy remittances from an estimated 10 million Filipinos working overseas and an unprecedented wave of foreign companies setting up backroom and outsourcing operations in the country – are driving a resurgent property industry despite a general slowdown in the local economy as a result of rising prices.
Developers predict a boom in the property sector much bigger than the surge felt prior to the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Global property consultant CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Philippines general manager Trent Frankum considered the Philippines as the hottest market in Southeast Asia in a speech before regional real estate executives in a Hong Kong convention. The assembly was held to identify real estate investments trends and had the biggest names in the property industry from Asia, Australia and the United Kingdom.
As it is, foreign investors look kindly at the positive effects of the stable Philippine peso, increasing tourist arrivals, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) boom, and the positive effect of OFW dollar remittances into the country.
This year alone, Filipinos working overseas are expected to bring in US$15 billion in remittances. This averages to more than US$1 billion a month, feeding the growth of a bigger middle class jockeying for a piece of real estate which it can call home.
The growing number of tourists is also fueling increased demands for resorts and hotels. Tourist arrivals exceeded two million for the first time since 2004, with roughly 3.091 million registered arrivals last year. New markets such as Russia, the Middle East, China and Korea are expected to help sustain this momentum. CBRE is confident tourism will grow by at least 10% this year, topping 3.4 million or about US$5.8 billion in international tourism receipts.
New hotel and resort developments are currently in strategic business locations such as Makati City, Fort Bonifacio, and the Bay Area as well as top tourist destinations such as Cebu and Boracay.
In reclaimed land along Manila Bay, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) is developing an ambitious US$15 billion 120-hectare Entertainment City Manila project with Alliance Global Group Inc (AGI) forming a joint venture with Malaysian gaming giant Genting Berhad and Star Cruises.
The project is envisioned to become one of the premier entertainment destinations in the region, at par with international standards. Among the main features are luxury hotels, amusement parks, meeting and convention facilities, state-of-the-art theaters, a sports stadium, race tracks, shopping malls, restaurants, a professional golf course, museums and cultural complexes, residential villages, a marina and boardwalk and an observation tower which will be among the tallest mega-structures in the world.
Japanese gaming equipment supplier Aruze has teamed up with another giant Wynn Resorts to put up the Okada Resort Manila Bay, which will have 2,000 standard rooms and 300 VIP suites. In it will rise the world’s biggest Oceanarium, theaters, a 40,000-seater Las Vegas-size sports arena, a museum and a giant ferries wheel similar to the London Eye (to be called the Manila Eye).
The Genting-AGI consortium will build several hotels with a minimum 2,000-room capacity, a world-class theme park, a museum and an iconic building similar to the Opera House of Australia. SM Investments Corporation on the other hand is proposing to build a world-class gaming facility with Asia Pacific Gaming of Australia.
This is just the spearhead of a massive infrastructure renaissance that will include all the major cities and destinations of the Philippines, such as Davao, Cebu, the Calabarzon area, Subic and the rest of Metro Manila.
Philippine Ambassador to Canada Jose S. Brillantes’s advice for would-be investors is to put in their money now. “If you are thinking of investing in a condominium unit in the Philippines, the time to buy is now”, he said. “As soon as these new infrastructures begin to rise, so will real estate prices. Thus, the time to invest is now, as the growth slope is steeply rising”, the Ambassador adds.
Those who have been to the Philippines lately have seen it for themselves. Philippine properties are hot, and as the saying goes, that is the time to strike.
03:56 PM