Business expectations survey

So what’s in store for business and the economy this year?

Today, we are featuring the opinion of two leading business personalities – Joey A. Concepcion, president, RFM Corp, and Felipe L. Gozon, chairman and CEO of GMA Network on this topic. The interview goes as follows:

What are your expectations for Philippine business in 2013?

JAC: This year will be another banner year for the Philippines. We are moving to the next level of hoping to be investment grade this year or maybe following year. With the casinos opening and more hotels coming up we should see if tourism will indeed pick up and start moving to the levels of Thailand.

FLG: I agree with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the economic managers of the administration, the local and foreign chambers of commerce, other business organizations and most of my business friends that the Philippine economy will grow by six percent or more in 2013.  Consequently, most of the businesses in the Philippines can expect substantial growth also, including the broadcast industry.

The fact that 2013 is a mid-term election year helps a lot.

What needs to be done to make the country a better place to invest in/do business in?

JAC: We hope to see better road networks being built to ease traffic. A super highway towards Baguio and as far as Ilocos would be great to improve tourism and agri development and bring farm to market much closer and more cost efficient. Hopefully the start of building world-class airports as we see the bidding of Cebu and eventually Manila which is very important.

FLG: Having said the above, I think there are still many areas that need to be improved to make the country a better place to do business in, such as:

(a) Substantially reduce national and local government red tape and regulations, minimize graft and corruption, minimize smuggling,  improve the efficiency and productivity of the labor force, improve the traffic situation in urban centers, and reduce the incidence of crimes against morals, persons and property.

(b) Improve existing roads and establish new highways, expressways and bridges.

(c) Improve the existing and establish new air terminals, runways, seaports, piers and wharves.

(d) Minimize pollution and improve disaster preparedness, response, rescue and relief operations.

(e) Liberalize the entry/investment of foreign capital in areas of business that do not affect national security and in residential, agricultural, industrial and commercial lands; etc.

What are the opportunities/threats facing your particular business/industry?

JAC: Our business continues to grow in ice cream.  Now, Selecta is close to 80 percent market share but what we would like to see is more Filipinos eating ice cream and this is why we will bring our freezer to more sari-sari stores since the power situation is much better. The rest of our brands in pasta, milk, beverage continues to grow as we see consumer spending improving.

FLG: The threats are additional and/or unfair competition from other TV and radio stations, cable and direct-to home TV companies, emerging mobile media platforms, etc.

The opportunities in  our industry are the opportunities – which are not yet clear at this time – that modern and new technology, like digitization, will make available to both the broadcast companies and the public, the possible de-chaining of the sale of mega Manila programs from the regional programs outside mega Manila, etc.

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