MEDIUM RARE
If you have three thumbs, use each and every one of them to greet the good news courtesy of Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto: The 15.6 percent growth in GDP is the highest in the last 16 years!
And more:
We are going to be the 13th largest consumer market by 2030, with consumer demand fueling 72 percent of the economy. A corollary is a low – the lowest – unemployment rate.
With a median age of 25, the population will be “one of the most dynamic in the world” — 91 percent of the work force predicted to be employed in the private sector.
In addition, public-private partnerships will grow. Tourism and mining are the industries to watch – bullish!
If the signs are accurate, eight million people will be lifted out of poverty “by the end of PBBM’s administration,” the good secretary added.
Secretary Recto sat at table #1 with Hans Sy, chairman of Chinabank, and other VIP’s during the bank’s “Rising” economic briefing at Makati Shangri-la last Monday. At their table was Johnlu Koa, aka the French Baker, who said he has been a loyal client of the bank since his early days in the trade.
With bank officers greeting and welcoming their guests, and a live band supplying vivacious music, I could not help recalling – from where I sat at table #11 – how two uncles (on my mother’s side) and a cousin worked in Chinabank their entire lives, from day one when they were young to their retirement, without interruption. I could not help thinking that, at least one generation ago, working in the bank (or a bank) was not merely a source of employment but a vocation.
Secretary Recto took his leave almost as soon as he concluded his speech, though he left these parting words as advice to workers everywhere: “Innovate, operate, cooperate.”
The day before I heard that speech, I could not believe my ears when my granddaughter dropped the bomb on us: “It’s boring, helping the rich get richer!”
From a multinational office in a five-star building, she’s moving to a government agency where she thinks she can be more useful interacting with people as young as or younger than herself.
May the Force be with you, my dear!