Instead of worrying over the soaring food prices and the crisis on oil hikes and other economic challenges, Filipinos are urged to focus their attention on opportunities.
“Should your energies be sunken up because there are setbacks? No, you have to break walls and help yourselves. It’s time for bold decisions and to challenge people. Government should go all out for rules and initiative to get people moving,” said Senator Richard Gordon.
In his keynote address during the recently held 17th Visayas Area Business Conference in lined with the celebration of the Mandaue Business Month, Gordon talked about the ways to cope up with the challenges of the times saying that in order to conquer challenges, Filipinos should have the energy that is fueled with vision and the necessary values.
“Our colonial walls have sucked up our energies to focus and move ahead so we have to draw on our values and wider resources then share a vision to achieve victory. Everybody has to carry the burden of the country and draw out the best in the Philippines to compete with the best in the world,” Gordon said.
He pointed out that if we will not promote the country well, we will not get jobs for our people and so there is a need to pay attention and focus on the inherent problems but act fast about it because the world will not wait for us and then come up with forward looking government policies.
“We have to focus and start one step at a time. We have to find out other opportunities and we have to push so that every Filipino can harness and grow,” he said.
Among the sectors that he said needs to be focused on are education and the health sector.
He said that six percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) should be allocated to education but currently only 2.5 percent is utilized for this sector.
He added that the country should come up with a Health and Education Acceleration Program that is lead by a corporation to be headed by the Philippine Tourism Authority and incorporated by business men, head of academe with a mandate to boost and accelerate the education system of the country.
He said that tourism is one of the opportunities that the country should tap into in order to propel progress.
And he pointed out the Cebu as an independent island with a resilient local economy could be a winning area for the country’s tourism promotion ventures.
“Cebu who has been marketed and known in other countries as an island in the Pacific sets an example that we should break our colonial walls and help ourselves to move forward despite the setbacks caused by challenges in our economy,” he said.
With several existing and on-going international airport projects n the Visayas, Gordon said that there is indeed progress that is going on in the country.
“You are opening doors to the world and as a beach and BPO destination, you are promoting the entire country to compete with the best in the world,” he said.