In his book “Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles” Ruchir Sharma said that the Philippines is positioned for huge growth.
Considering that he is chief of the Emerging Markets Equity team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, he must know what he is talking about. His book has since become best-seller.
The book said that in the 1960s, Philippines was Asia's second-highest per capital income earner and only behind Japan.
The Philippines "fortunes have shifted dramatically since then" while many of our neighbors made it big.
Malaysia and Thailand followed in the 1980s.
China boomed in the 1990s.
“Then in 2009, in a moment the Manila elite thought it would never see, Indonesia's boom made Indonesians richer than Filipinos for the first time modern history," Sharma wrote.
And so it was, that up until 2010, the Philippines still wallowed in the quagmire of economic decay, as "still the undisputed laggard of Asia, a nation mired in chronic incompetence."
However, Ruchir Sharma believes the Philippines may soon join the ranks of the world's "tiger economies."
Right now Asia's tiger economies include Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong. (It is interesting to note that although Hong Kong is a SAR (Special Administrative Region) of China, China itself was not mentioned as one of Asia’s Tigers.)
Sharma points out that an economic surge may happen for the Philippines if it attains a "modicum of political stability and some basic economic sense." He said it should manage its vast resources - having the world's fifth-richest in natural resources such as oil, copper, nickel, gold, and silver.
Sharma contends that the Philippines' booming population is not a disadvantage. In fact, he claims that the high population is a "big economic plus" because "the concentration of people and business drives growth."
Additionally, the Pinoys' ability to speak English, led the country to becoming the best choice of business process outsourcing-a $9 billion industry employing 350,000 people.
So enough of this "talangka-mentality" (crab-mentality) of pushing each other down. If others believe in us, we should honor them by believing in ourselves. Let's Move!
Additionally, the Pinoys' ability to speak English, led the country to becoming the best choice of business process outsourcing-a $9 billion industry employing 350,000 people.
So enough of this "talangka-mentality" (crab-mentality) of pushing each other down. If others believe in us, we should honor them by believing in ourselves. Let's Move!
I am reading Thea Alberto-Masakayan’ s article published by Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom
