Korean businessmen upbeat on RP recovery

Visiting South Korean business leaders have remained upbeat on the recovery of the Philippine economy and are looking for excellent opportunities to invest in the country, Lakas NUCD national chairman and Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia said yesterday.

De Venecia said he received a delegation of 30 South Korean business leaders involved in the expanding field of information technology at his Makati residence, where he held discussions with the visitors leaders who expressed enthusiasm about doing business here.

"They were upbeat on the recovery of the Philippine economy, which has suffered from the Abu Sayyaf kidnappings, leading to the depreciation of the peso," he said.

The Korean business leaders are in Manila to look for business prospects with a week to go before the 12th Congress opens and the President delivers her State of the Nation Address.

De Venecia called his discussions with the Koreans "fruitful."

Earlier at the Kapihan forum at the Manila Hotel, De Venecia proposed a massive agricultural development program to create one million jobs and a housing program to build 400,000 homes every year in support of President Arroyo’s socialized housing program.

De Venecia said his "Economic Action Plan 747" envisions an annual growth of seven percent over seven years, attacking the problem of mass poverty initially through a mass housing program supported by P270 million in non-performing assets from private commercial banks and agricultural modernization.

The senior Lakas leader noted that because of rural poverty, countryside development must be the centerpiece of public policy.

He said only "modernized agriculture can bring the poorest Filipinos into the market economy."

In his Plan 747, De Venecia also stressed the need to keep pace with global trends and move in the area of information technology, where Filipinos are among the most skilled in Asia.

A few weeks ago, De Venecia also received a high-powered delegation of American business leaders who declared they were confident President Arroyo and the new Congress would be able to turn the economy around.