More business, less politics, and something new

"In some countries, the national sport is tax evasion; in our country, the favorite pastime is politics," Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Miguel Varela once said. Despite the levity, many agree with Varela that too much politics has downgraded business to second priority.

Thus, the call for economic reforms in last week’s Philippine Business Conference, an annual undertaking of PCCI, was not new. The call had been made in previous PBCs.

On the sidelines, there was the unintentional snub given to Jeffrey L.S. Koo, chairman of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce and concurrent chairman of Chinatrust (Phils). Commercial Banking Corp. Koo, who was supposed to deliver a speech on the topic, "Response to a changing regional economy", was bumped off the program when President Macapagal-Arroyo decided to address the PBC before flying to the United States.

Koo could not be pacified and left the PBC within the hour. He flew out of the country the same day, one day after he announced expansion plans for Chinatrust (Phils). in the next five years.

Despite the incident, the PCCI general membership was clearly flattered by the President’s last-minute decision to deliver the keynote address. Considered the country’s biggest and most influential business organization, PCCI currently counts 1,608 corporate members, 115 local chambers, 126 trade organizations 29 bilateral organizations and 13 foreign chamber affiliates

Reason for hope

"The current administration comes out as sincere, open to dialogue and serious about good government," said Varela. "We are very encouraged to set aside political talk and to really come up with proposals that can be considered for immediate executive action."

With sessions focused on small- and medium-sized enterprises, this year’s PBC was not only about a general call for reforms; it had something new and tangible to offer participants.

For one, business matching was not limited to the two and a half hours set by previous PBCs. PBC chairman Jimmy Tang paved the way for the modification of the process so that the entire two and a half days of the PBC could be spent on meeting new contacts to expand one’s network of business associates.

As a result of the innovation, close to 1,000 delegates and over 60 exhibitors trooped to the PBC to find new suppliers, contractors, buyers, dealers and a host of opportunities to do business.

For another, PBC launched the "most business friendly local government unit" award, which was won by Muntinlupa. "The PCCI has long advocated the correction of bottlenecks in the bureaucracy, particularly in LGUs that process business permits and various requirements to do business. Let’s face it, these bottlenecks increase the cost of doing business not only in absolute pesos and centavos but also in terms of the time element where delays have direct and quantifiable business costs," Varela said.

Recommendations

As in previous years, this year’s PBC will end with time-bound recommendations for government action. This year, however, more resolutions will require executive, rather than legislative action, for faster implementation and closer monitoring.

One PCCI resolution that came out of earlier PCBs and made it through to actual implementation was the computerization of the Bureau of Customs. The recommendation to speed up BoC’s processing through computerization was made during the time of former President Ramos. Since then, the recommendation has been expanded and is set to implementation.

Most PBC recommendations in previous years had to be submitted to Congress for action. An example was the Agriculture and Fishery Modernization Act, which was enacted in 1997 but has yet to receive a budget for implementation.

"We understand that the economic situation is serious. There is some degree of pessimism. As businessmen, we have to persevere so that we can continue to do business. But with President Macapagal-Arroyo pledging transparency and good governance, we’d like to think we have a real chance to get more things done this time," Varela said.