Geopolitical tensions affecting PH businesses

GEOPOLITICAL tensions overseas, particularly in the Middle East, have a significant impact on Philippine businesses, the chief of Ayala Corp. said, as these conflicts disrupt the global supply chain.

“One thing that everyone takes for granted ... is the way goods and services have moved freely across the seas over the years,” Ayala Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, also known as JAZA, said in a recent interview.

Zobel de Ayala said it was difficult now as the movement of goods has taken a “different route, mainly across the southern port of Africa rather than the Suez Canal because of the tensions that existed in the Middle East.”

The Israel-Hamas war is currently causing tensions in the Middle East, but these are further exacerbated by Iran’s seizure of an American oil tanker off the coast of Oman, according to reports.

Local businesses are facing operational challenges due to disruptions in the global system of logistics and transportation, he claimed, which have also resulted in increased costs.

“There have been institutions and countries like the United States that have provided safety for the movement of those goods and services over the years, not only [for] the US but [for] a global system,” Zobel de Ayala continued.

He also encouraged the government and the private sector to work together and “do everything we can to be helpful to global communities.”

“It is an area where cooperation comes into play through being supportive of a global system of trade and the movement of goods and services for our benefit as well as the benefit of others,” he added.