#MINDANAO

In the 49th Philippine Business  Conference hosted by the Philip- pine Chamber of Commerce and  Industry (PCCI) hundreds of business and local chamber of commerce and industry leaders from all over the country gathered in Manila to discuss issues and dreams for the Philippine business sector.

For this year’s gathering, the discussion centered on Vision 2050, aiming to make the Philippines a first- world economy by the year 2050. This means that our per capita income will be at least US$13,205 for a population that is expected to hit 150 million Filipinos. At this point we are at lower middle-income status, at a level of about $3,700 per capita. This obviously means that we have a fairly long way to go over the next 27 years to achieve the results that this vision aims to bring.

The question is whether the goals to be achieved in pursuit of this vision are achievable or realistic. Can our per capita GDP breach the required threshold? Perhaps you may wonder why such  a bold vision is even articulated. To answer that, I believe it is but proper to craft a lofty vision that will carry our hopes and encourage us to strive toward the goals. It matters, therefore, that we aim high.

A high objective enables us to organize ourselves as a national economy to create the wealth needed to reach this goal. This means getting all the engines from our various economic sectors - services, manufacturing agriculture, fisheries, and forestry— to build the income base upon which first-world status is based.

This means encouraging new investments to increase the number of establishments and increase capitalization and revenue from existing businesses in these sectors. Government and the private sector will need to work together to promote in- vestments in the economy. This is not the government's role alone.

Moreover, achieving first-world status means producing high-value products that can compete in larger markets. This will require innovation to add value to current produce and new product development to meet the needs of new and varied buyers, including new export markets. This provides the benefit of enabling higher levels of local production of products both raw and processed. More innovative production, in turn, means more high-paying jobs.

A key enabler for this, however, is a high level of human capital, which requires investments in education and training. This means more skilled workers to design the products and run the machines to produce these goods.

Another enabler are the more liberal investment laws allowing greater foreign ownership in various economic sectors, encouraging more foreign participation that brings fresh new capital and technology. Yet another is the CREATE law which lowers corporate income taxes putting them at par with our Asean neighbors. This makes equity investments even more attractive.

In addition, to achieve this vision, inflation will need to be lowered to levels that will allow more people to spend on more goods and services and invest in enterprises. More food will be needed to keep costs of living at manageable levels. 

If these measures are enabled, I do not see any reason why we cannot achieve first-world status by 2050. We owe our children a future that they can look forward to.