And now, three cheers for the OFE

You have heard of the OFWs – the Overseas Filipino Workers who are keeping the Philippine economy afloat. Several presidents have called them the new heroes, and deservedly so.

Now, let's have some applause for the OFE – the Overseas Filipino Entrepreneur. They have established the Filipino brand names on foreign shores. It is always a source of national pride to order a bottle of San Miguel beer or enter a Jollibee outlet abroad. I know I smiled when I saw billboards of Enervon and Decolgen in Vietnam and Myanmar during my recent trip. And I couldn't help getting misty-eyed in Vietnam when I saw the Philippine flag flying high in the spanking new, squeaky clean and modern factory of Liwayway Marketing, brand owner of Oishi snacks.

Of course these Filipino investors abroad had to take resources from the country to invest abroad. In the process, they created jobs overseas. Narrow minded folks would probably say they took resources the country needed and created jobs abroad that could have been created at home. That's the myopic view.

What these brave Pinoy entrepreneurs did is expand the market for their products. We can only drink so much beer, take so much Enervon without getting an overdose and eat so much Oishi snacks. So they have gone abroad selling a lot more of the products they are so good in making, employing Pinoy executive talent, making profits and sending those profits back home to make our balance of payments look a lot healthier. They are also doing something constructive at this time when the absence of business confidence prevents them from making the kind of returns at home that they can earn abroad.

I can't get over the guts and daring of these OFEs when they decided to take their risks in foreign markets they hardly knew. And in the case of Liwayway's Carlos Chan, he went into markets where his product category didn't even exist – they haven't heard of packaged snacks when he started in parts of China, Vietnam and Myanmar. He had to create awareness for his product, then for his brand, from scratch. Yet, he invested hundreds of millions of pesos in manufacturing facilities even before his market was established for sure.

The Yao Campos family of Unilab is of course, the pioneer of them all. They were all over Southeast Asia way way back. Many of Unilab's top executives served in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries. They fought for market share against the best of the world's pharmaceutical companies. And they are up there with the market leaders. It was a thrill to pick up a bottle of Enervon in a drugstore in Yangon and see that it was manufactured in Mandaluyong, less than five minutes away from my office in Ortigas.

Last night, ANC's business newscast had a news item about another survey that ranked the Philippines as among the least attractive for multinational investors. That's depressing news we already know. But the good thing with the unheralded OFEs is they do not curse the darkness but light a candle instead. If the investment climate is bad here, they go abroad and earn the foreign exchange there that they could not earn by investing at home.

This is why it is perhaps time to give OFEs some help. Ex-Im bank type facilities should be made available to them because what they are doing is as beneficial to the economy as any export-oriented enterprise. Not only that, these OFE's have shown where our competitive advantage lies and are out there in the big wide world testing it.

Our low profile OFEs are not fighting globalization and asking government to slow it down. They are using globalization to advantage. Does high profile Ronnie Concepcion, who heads a noisy group of local industrialists, have what it takes to establish factories and sell his Condura air conditioners abroad?

It makes sense to me for Asean to organize a conference of these OFEs from all member countries to find out what Asean governments should do to help them. I am sure all those government technocrats making all the rules could use some help from those who are fighting it out on ground zero. AFTA can be made more meaningful and relevant if it actually works to encourage and help these OFEs.

In fact, something as simple as facilitating the ability of the Oishi factory in Myanmar to import or export intermediate raw materials to its factory in Vietnam or Manila should give meaning to the ideals of Asean economic cooperation. And since China is now teaming up with Asean, Oishi's 11 or 12 factories in China should be able to freely trade with all its factories in Southeast Asia. Free trade, or trade between its various factories will enable a company like Liwayway to maximize the benefits of a particular area for the good of the whole.

The OFEs are also our new heroes. Here's three cheers for them from this solitary voice.

Vietnam

I received this e-mail from Albert M G Garcia, President, Garsworth Consulting (Philippines).

A reaction to your column today on Vietnam.

I first visited Vietnam in 1982 on the invitation of the Vietnamese government at the time.

Note that the timeframe was after the war, there was a US embargo in place and Vietnam was literally bankrupt. I met with every government ministry and the supplication from each was, "please help us export our goods and services to the outside world." Back then Vietnam only traded, whatever meager goods and services they had, with Eastern bloc countries, Russia, Cuba, East Germany etc. Staying in Hanoi at the Doc Lap Hotel I was the solitary Asian, in the company of Cubans, East Germans, Russians and even back then the Japanese who were already networking.

Ho Chi Minh City was almost a ghost town and still coming to terms with the historical events, only bicycles dominated the streets, but already the sense of purpose and determination was thick in the air. The people had the will to rise above their plight and they did and continue to rise, as you have just witnessed.

I then imported the first commercial shipment of foodstuffs to Australia of four containers. (There is another very interesting political and commercial anecdote/incident associated with this.) At the time Vietnam did not even have a facility for container shipment, loose cargo were transhipped via Singapore and repacked in containers for on-shipment.

I have since frequented Vietnam in a number of capacities, one of the more significant was to assist Philippine exporters trade with Vietnam. I was engaged by GTZ/PHILGED, a German government agency and was ODA project. My role was to identify what Vietnam needed and find the Philippine counterpart to fill the gap. This resulted in a number of companies from varying industries find export markets in Vietnam, to name some, KEMWERKE, a manufacturer of alkyd resin, FILIPINO PIPE AND FOUNDRY, who ended supplying the pipe requirements for the rehabilitation of the Ho Chi Minh City water system.

You are right in observing that Vietnamese are a determined and proud people and this is very clearly demonstrated by the fact that even the poor people will not blatantly beg for money, but will "sell" you a stick of chewing gum as their counterpart gesture of trade.

Perhaps there are lessons to be learnt from this simple act of self pride.

Ever wonder?

Ever wonder about those people who spend $2 a piece on those bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backwards: NAIVE.

Isn’t making a smoking section in a restaurant like making a peeing section in a swimming pool?

If four out of five people SUFFER from diarrhea...does that mean that one enjoys it?

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])