Vietnam overtakes us in poverty alleviation

According to the recent issue of The Economist, Vietnam has overtaken China, India and the Philippines in poverty alleviation and now has only slightly more poverty than Indonesia. "Though Vietnam is still, overall, one of Asia’s poorest countries, with income per head behind India’s, its recent growth has been impressively egalitarian." That means, Vietnam’s economic growth benefits more people unlike the kind of growth we have been experiencing here that hardly trickles down.

Just a few more winks and we are going to be eating Vietnam’s dust. "Vietnam has overtaken China, India and Indonesia. In 2001-05 it averaged over 7.5 percent, reaching a peak of 8.4 percent last year. This year the government is going all out to hit an eight percent target." That a level of GDP growth, sustained over a number of years, that allows a country to reduce poverty.

And where are we? Oh, our Economic Planning Chief is jumping up with unbridled glee with growth at the level of five percent a year. At least our Finance Secretary Gary Teves was candid enough to admit that growth at that level will have no impact on poverty alleviation.

The Economist reports that Vietnam’s new five-year plan, is laden with targets for increasing output and improving infrastructure, with the objective of making Vietnam a modern, industrial nation by 2020. Of course, The Economist noted, other Asian countries’ leaders, from Malaysia to the Philippines, declare similar objectives. The difference is that Vietnam’s rulers seem to mean it – and their recent record suggests they might pull it off.

And they do mean it too when they say they will fight corruption… The Economist reports "the April congress was preceded by a purge of high officials suspected of corruption–most notably at a road-building agency where some staff stole millions of dollars to bet on football matches." Let us not even talk of similar publicized anti corruption drives here. Ate Glue isn’t even interested to clear the air on the Bolante case, the most scandalous of recent corruption stories in the country.

Vietnam’s prospects for continued growth are good, The Economist surmises. Since 1990, Vietnam’s exports have increased faster than China’s. "Their growth shows no signs of slackening. Between January and July they amounted to $22 billion, a year-on-year rise of over 25 percent. Having alarmed the Brazilians by becoming their main competitor in coffee growing, Vietnam is now ramping up its exports of everything from shrimps to ships to shoes (the last prompting the European Union to announce anti-dumping tariffs last month). It has just become the world’s largest exporter of pepper and aims soon to overtake Thailand in rice. It is even selling tea to India."

While agriculture remains strong, manufacturing is fast accounting for most of Vietnam ‘s export earnings. "Foreign-owned factories are chalking up the fastest gains. The government’s aim of increasing electronics exports by 27 percent annually should be boosted by Intel’s recent decision to build a $605 million microchip plant in Ho Chi Minh City."

Best of all, the quality of life has improved dramatically. "Life expectancy has jumped and infant mortality plunged since the 1990s. Vietnam does better on both these counts than Thailand, a far richer country. Almost three-quarters of Vietnamese children of secondary-school age are in class, up from about a third in 1990."

So, what’s our excuse again? Politics? Whatever!

Foreign investments

One reason why investors, local and foreign, don’t take our government’s promises seriously is because of our notorious track record of backing down on our promises. For instance, we sold Clark to investors on the promise of tax free operations, like Subic. But we forgot to get Congress to pass the enabling legislation. So when the Supreme Court nullified the promises made by the executive branch to the investors, the country lost that much credibility.

Then, our government somehow fails to protect those who risk resources here. Still in Clark, take the case of what happened to CCA Holdings B.V., which used to manage the Mimosa Golf and Country Club and the Monte Vista Hotel for former Mimosa operator Mondragon Leisure and Resorts Corp. It filed claims amounting to $1,668, 701.00 (as of November 1999), when Mondragon was booted out of Mimosa.

CCA Holdings duly registered its claims with no less than former CDC president Emmanuel Angeles, who acknowledged its merit and validity in an April 26, 2004 letter, promising that the settlement of said claim would be included in the privatization of the Mimosa Leisure Estate. Yet, with a change in CDC management, the new boys refused to include the claim when the entire estate was bid out.

So, this Mimosa creditor is all set to file a case before the International Court of Justice against CDC officials for prejudicing and misrepresenting the claims of the internationally renowned club and resort management firm. Every time such a case is filed in an international body accusing our government of failure to carry out a contract or a commitment, our investor credibility suffers.

The other thing Clark officials forgot in the case of CCA Holdings is that CCA is in a position to help bring in investors for tourism infrastructure projects we need so badly to make tourism a primary dollar earner in this country. We simply do not have the ability to think long term… beyond the here and now.

Of course it does not help that there are all those things going on in Poro Point… and the unresolved tax free promises made to Fil-Estate and other investors for the Camp John Hay development. Hay naku!

Davao

Art P. Boncato, president, Davao Tourism Association sent me this email.

I read your article today at The Philipine Star and I would like to thank you for thinking about Davao. It is very seldom that we see opinion makers like your position and declare Cebu and Davao as tourist destinations with "decent airport terminal buildings and better tourism environment".

Davao, indeed, is a wonderful city with many potentials that are slowly being fulfilled. We are putting our unified efforts through the Davao Convention and Visitors Cooperative Bureau (DCVB) to turn it into the next international destination of the country. Our new and functional airport can support over a million visitors a year. We have at least 2,900 hotel rooms of various categories and support services that make for a unique, memorable and comfortable stay. And crucial to our success, we are working very hard to get new international connections to add to our flights from Singapore and Indonesia.

Certainly, things are looking up in Davao. We just placed our bid to host the 20th Philippine Advertising Congress in 2007. We pray that we host it as the high-value PR premium that comes with it will surely boost our efforts in reaching out to our markets in saying that all is well in Davao!

Once again, thank you for the media space you accorded Davao.

Anting anting

Here’s something from Nora Caberto.

Miss Beatrice, the church organist, was in her eighties and had never been married. She was admired for her sweetness and kindness to all.

One afternoon the pastor came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room.

She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea.

As he sat facing her old Hammond organ, the young minister noticed a cut-glass bowl sitting on top of it. The bowl was filled with water, and in the water floated, of all things, was a condom!

When she returned with tea and scones, they began to chat. The pastor tried to stifle his curiosity about the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and he could no longer resist.

"Miss Beatrice", he said, "I wonder if you would tell me about this?" pointing to the bowl.

"Oh, yes," she replied, "Isn’t it wonderful? I was walking through the park a few months ago and I found this little package on the ground. The directions said to place it on the organ, keep it wet and that it would prevent the spread of disease.

Do you know I haven’t had the flu all winter."

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]