Engines of growth

The BusinessWorld Economic Forum held last week showcased the Duterte administration’s direction on infrastructure development with the slogan BUILD! BUILD! BUILD! The forum allowed participants to have a better view of the present developments on government programs such as the tax reform program, regional development and agriculture, to name a few.

The Philippines, despite the big leaps in economic improvements and reforms, still lags in terms of infrastructure advancement. This lack of infrastructure comes at enormous economic and social cost. Better infrastructure in terms of roads and transport services would also mean lower cost to transport goods and reduce time to market — this would also mean bigger income and better competitive edge of the smaller and medium sized trade enterprises, the core of developing economies.

Meeting the urgent need for development presents a significant financing challenge given constraints on existing sources of infrastructure finance. To help bridge that financing gap, private sector and institutional investors ( big developers and basic steel and cement manufacturers) have joined the government towards this endeavor. Although improvements on strategic urban planning and investment protection programs still remain to be the issues international market investors are keeping a keen eye on, the private sector’s prime movers and top government secretaries have laid down plans to address these pressing concerns.

Expected major sunrise industries are developers, cement manufacturers, wood and steel fabricators that would be big players in the next few years. Sea and marine transport and port services were also mentioned as key drivers for development – this would translate to better influx of imported goods, better shipping business of which the Philippines is well known for.

FINEX FOLIO FLOR G. TARRIELA