MANILA, Philippines - We want to see a clear industrial development plan.
This was the urgent position expressed by Ronald Chua, vice president for industries of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) after the economic team of President Aquino laid down the administration’s economic development agenda at the tail end of the recently concluded Philippine Business Conference.
The Aquino government announced in that forum a development plan with a high yearly growth target ranging from seven to eight percent beginning next year.
Chua is president of the Cathay Pacific Steel Co., one of the few survivors in the domestic steel-making industry.
The industrialist observed that in all the presentations made by members of the Aquino economic team, the growth was planned to come from investments in tourism and the business process outsourcing industries.
Development blueprints were unfolded in both industries during the conference.
No plan or action agenda was, however, mentioned for the shrinking industrial and manufacturing sector, including the building of specific big-ticket infrastructure projects where public-private sector partnership was announced formally by socioeconomic planning chief Cayetano Paderanga.
Before Paderanga became the government’s chief economic planner, he had been championing the revival of the country’s industrial sector, reasoning that growth provided by the services sector would not be sufficient to create the quality jobs that millions of young Filipino graduates need each year.
Besides, industrialization has been the chief development strategy for sustained growth of all of the newly industrializing economies in Asia.