‘Spend more, boost liquidity to aid recovery’

A Chinese-Filipino business organization on Thursday urged consumers and entrepreneurs to spend more and financial institutions to increase liquidity to help the country recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement listing his recommendations for that recovery, Henry Lim Bon Liong, president of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII), said the “slowdown and stoppage in many economic activities in recent months due to the pandemic and the quarantines have had a detrimental impact on jobs and incomes for millions of our countrymen nationwide.”

“Like the engine of a plane, it takes time, fuel and calibrated efforts to decisively rev up and restart our now partially immobilized economy,” he added.

According to him, the government and banks should help unleash liquidity to fuel economic recovery.

“Banks need not be overly conservative. If more money circulates, the faster momentum of economic recovery shall benefit all in a virtuous cycle of investments and consumption, in contrast to a climate of fear and gloom with its vicious cycle of shutdowns or retreats,” Liong said.

“We urge banks to extend support to micro, small [and] mediumscale enterprises ( MSMEs), many of which now face existential threats, and also to big companies [ that] want to consolidate and expand,” he added.

The recommendations he listed including urging businesses to refrain from laying off their employees; help keep basic goods affordable; support farmers and fishermen; boost e- commerce; export more; revive local manufacturing by buying local products; invite more foreign investors; support domestic tourism; and invest in and upgrade the health industry.

The FFCCCII also pushes for more investments in food and agro-industrial ventures to attain food security and in the countryside to help decongest Metro Manila and spur development in the provinces; develop more affordable housing; retrain and employ returning overseas Filipino workers; promote wellness; and support the government’s socioeconomic reforms.

“We at FFCCCII urge all FilipinoChinese entrepreneurs, even other businessmen, to support the government’s positive socioeconomic reforms and policies geared toward inclusive, sustainable Philippine economic progress,” Liong said.

“Let us entrepreneurs also actively provide frank, timely and constructive feedback to our leaders on how to strengthen our Philippine economy,” he added.

Liong’s statement comes after the government announced that the country fell into a technical recession after the economy further shrank to a record 16.5 percent in the second quarter — the lowest since 1981 — from the revised 0.7 percent in the first.

The sharp decline was blamed on the community quarantines imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the country, the number of total confirmed cases of which surged to 119,460 on Thursday.