Businessmen upbeat on economic future — survey

Local businessmen are now more optimistic on their economic future, expecting an increase in profitability, employment and export earnings this year, according to the International Business Owners Survey (IBOS) 2005 of Grant Thornton, an international accounting and consultancy firm.

According to Greg Navarro, managing partner and chief operating officer of Punongbayan & Araullo (a member of Grant Thornton), the IBOS survey showed a 50 percent turnaround in mostly medium-size Philippine business perception from last year when the survey showed a negative one percent economic outlook.

The improved business perception, Navarro said, is largely due to the resolution of the political uncertainty and the election of President Arroyo to a six-year term.

Philippine businesses, the survey showed, expect increased profitability, employment and exports this year.

According to Ben Punongbayan, "the Filipino respondents anticipate greater demand for their products that would result in increasing their ability to raise prices, create more employment and generate higher profits."

However, one major constraint to further economic growth for Philippine businesses is regulations and red tape.

The IBOS report also showed that a big part in Philippine business growth is the impact of modern communications technology.

In fact, the Philippines consistently ranked highest in the use of the Internet and e-mail in promoting business, even much higher than European countries.

The IBOS report also touched on the stress factor and for most Philippine businesses, the primary stress factor is increased competition.

Lastly, the China factor was also studied and it was shown that second to Hong Kong, it is the Philippines which seems to be benefiting from increased business relationship with China.