MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Economic Society (PES), in its 47th Annual Meeting held at the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas, brought together scholars and practitioners from all over the country to discuss and address issues that have arisen due to the current global financial crisis.
With the theme “Survival and Growth: The Philippines 2010 and Beyond,” the annual meet also tackled prospects for the year 2010 as the economy starts showing signs of recovery.
In his keynote speech, 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year awardee and Plantersbank chairman and president Ambassador Jesus P. Tambunting emphasized the important role that banks and other lending institutions play in helping generate a robust SME sector. “SMEs play the lead role in economic growth and if complemented with proper investments in infrastructure and agriculture, our SMEs can generate more employment and effectively ease poverty,” according to Ambassador Tambunting.
The PES is a professional organization of economists and has become one of the strongest networks of economists in the academe, government and business sector.