EDITORIAL - Vital asset

A recent news report said the country’s huge population will bring a sustained growth to the economy. Given the fact that our population is still rising at a fast pace, economic experts predicted that a large pool of young labor force would continue pushing the economy upward in decades to come.

Areas of continued growth will be in the fields of business process outsourcing, manufacturing and real estate where we have abundant labor supply. These areas are expected to continue their robust growth as labor demand will remain strong.

There’s really no question that our big population will be the main driver of economic growth. China, for example, relies heavily on its huge population to attain unprecedented growth in the last two decades. Its vast labor force enabled China to produce more, flooding the world with products ranging from toothpaste to car.

In the country, we do not have the need to import workers to man our call centers and factories. We have highly skilled workers rendering high quality service, making the country the favorite destination of multinational companies.

But as economic experts long pointed out, the country’s rising population is still the main reason why we remain poor. One may wonder why the Philippines cannot translate its huge population to real economic growth.

Yes we have economic growth of late. But the majority are not benefitting from it. The rich only become richer as growth failed to trickle down the masses. While we believe there is indeed economic growth, the government is really helpless in bringing the fruits to the countryside.

Although our huge population will become a vital asset toward sustaining growth in the long run, there is really an urgent need for the government to outline measures that would contain its uncontrolled rise. It is undeniable that the population problem remains the number one burden for the government.

This is not to say the Reproductive Health bill is the only solution to the problem. But at least passing it would show to the world that there is government effort toward controlling the exploding population.