Foreign traders hold back investment decisions

MANILA, Philippines - Foreign businessmen said they will remain cautious in deciding to invest in the country next year.

European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) executive vice president Henry Schumacher said investors may have good reasons to be cautiously optimistic on the country’s prospects next year.

“We are looking at 2010 with guarded optimism,” Schumacher said after hearing the presentation of the leaders of these major growth drivers at the ECCP’s recent forum dubbed Economic Outlook 2010: The Philippine Business Environment in Light of Developments in the World Economy.

Six industries were identified as potential growth areas. These are electronics, agri-business, tourism, business process outsourcing (BPO), property development and retail.

During the conference, Semiconductor Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. chairman Arthur Young reported that electronics industry directly employs 450,000 individuals and another 1.20 million indirectly.

Young said they expect export revenues to be between $29 billion and $30 billion. This, he said, will help the industry recover lost footing in 2008 and 2009 when the industry suffered declining export receipts.

He said the growth will be fueled by the uptick in consumer spending in the US and increase in the purchase of hybrid cars, smart phones, PDAs, laptops, flat panels and medical equipment in fast-growing markets such as China and India.

For his part, Business Process Association of the Philippines chief executive officer Oscar Sañez said revenues from the BPO sector is expected to expand to $9.50 billion in 2010 and $12 billion in 2011.

He said big investments are no longer concentrated in the metropolis but is also spreading to the countryside. Aside from the voice segment, growth will be strong in back-office services such as publishing, finance, corporate services, design, and creative services.

Jones Lang Lasalle Philippines Inc. chairman Jose Fernando Camus said tourism and BPO firms will help the property sector intensify its growth with the need for more Grade A office spaces for the outsourcing firms, as well as new hotels and airports to service the influx of tourists.

Likewise, Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp. president Mariz Agbon, said businessmen from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Korea have expressed interest to invest in the country’s agriculture sector which makes the outlook over the next five years very positive.