Infra, election spending to fuel 7% economic growth in ’15, says PCCI

THE PHILIPPINE Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country’s largest business organization, remains bullish that the local economy will expand by 7 percent this year, boosted largely by increased spending for infrastructure projects and the national elections next year.

PCCI president Alfredo M. Yao said the campaigns for the 2016 national elections alone would likely contribute about P40 billion to P45 billion to the country’s gross domestic product this year. Infrastructure spending, particularly by the government, is being ramped up to about 3.5 percent of the GDP for 2015.

Yao said the PCCI remained confident that the country’s robust economic growth was sustainable despite the upcoming elections and the developments concerning the Greek debt crisis, among other issues faced by businesses operating here.

“Only a strong calamity (of ‘Typhoon Yolanda’ proportion) may deter our growth, but not any political event,” Yao said.

According to Yao, PCCI remains hopeful that the Aquino administration, in its last year, will be able to implement some of the measures and programs deemed crucial in locking the economic gains achieved over the past years in sustaining good governance in institutionalizing the various reforms that are being implemented.

Top most in the PCCI wish list are the eradication of graft and corruption at the Bureau of Customs and the passage of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act and the Fair Competition Act, which are seen boosting the competitiveness of the Philippines in the global market.

Yao also pointed out that the government must implement more measures to address the Manila port congestion. While the conditions at the port had significantly improved compared to last year, the congestion, Yao claimed, continued to persist and might even worsen given an improving economy and increased exports and imports.

The government, he added, should push for the increased use of the Subic and Batangas ports by creating the market to divert more clients from Manila to these two areas, and to enable more ships to increase the calls in those ports.

“We should reduce our reliance on the Port of Manila. We need to use the north and south ports more. And there should be stronger political will for the government to be able to increase the use of the two ports,” Yao said.