Sometime ago, a prestigious international professional  services network PricewaterhouseCoopers  (PWC) based  in London issued  a  report  on its projections for  the world’s economic and financial landscape  by 2050 and came up with conclusions  of  tremendous interest  to  us  in  the  Philippines. In the report,   entitled “The Long View:  How  Will the Global  Economic Order  Change by 2050?,”  said it expects global economic power  to shift away  from today’s established economies  in  North  America, Europe,  and Japan in the next  35 years  towards China and India.  China is projected to have a global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) of 61,079, followed by India with 41,484. They are followed on the list by Indonesia, 12,210 GDP; Brazil, 9,164 GDP; Mexico, 8,014 GDP; Japan, 7,914 GDP; Russia, 7,575 GDP;  and Nigeria, 7,345 GDP. The Philippines,  which was  No. 28 in the 2014 list with 695 GDP, is surprisingly projected  to  be No. 20  with 3,516 GDP in 2050, ahead  of  fellow ASEAN nations Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Malaysia.  We would  be, in the view of this international economic and financial institution, one of the world’s 20 richest countries  in the world. We have  not  really  thought  of ourselves  as  a  rich country, but this PWC  assessment   must see in us a potential   that is now becoming evident. A  major  factor  seems  to  be  a shift in world growth towards  Asia,  notably China  and  India. President  Duterte’s  vigorous  implementation  of  an  independent  foreign policy, as mandated  by  the Constitution,  comes at  a most opportune time. This coming  April, he will be joining the Belt  and Road Initiative Forum  in China,  at the  invitation of China President  Xi  Jinping  who was here last November. This will be the President’s  fourth visit to China since he assumed office in 2016. The Philippines is also  developing stronger  relations with its fellow members of the Association of Southeast  Asian Nations (ASEAN). This strengthening of ties with fellow Asian nations is taking place  even  as we maintain  our close ties with  and friendly  relations with our old ally the United  States. All these projections  for  the  future  should  inspire our leaders to strive even  harder  for the economic progress expected  in  31 years,  both for the prestige our nation  will enjoy in the family  of nations  and,  more important, for the better  lives that our people should  be living as a progressive country.