RP must develop new niches to sustain investment thrust

While China is getting majority of the attention from global manufacturing companies, the Philippines must focus on its niche for new industries like call center and other Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) to sustain its investment momentum.

According to Christopher Wang of American Express Private Bank Asia Pacific Investment Services, from manufacturing, the Philippines could move up to attracting BPO investments, to capitalize on its good human resource pool.

"There is no way that other country like Philippines could compete with China in terms of attracting manufacturing investments. Because of this, other countries were forced to find new industries to develop as their niche," Wang said in an interview.

With the current political uncertainty in the country, Wang said it should not be used as a hindrance for the Philippines to attract new industry investors like the call centers.

"Every country has its own political problem," Wang said referring that investors are getting numb of the political problems happening in every country, and that this problem is not a big factor in pursuing an investment plan.

He added that every Asian country is affected by China, even Singapore and Malaysia. The Philippines he said must also consider in developing new industries, and BPO is seen to sustain the investment attractiveness of the Philippines.

On the other hand, Philippine-based investors could also take advantage of China's booming economy through investing in companies that sell to China like minerals, consumer goods, bags, among others.

He said there are lots of ways Filipino investors could maximize with the fast growth of China, through investing in companies that manufactures goods, and sells to the growing 1.2 billion Chinese populations.

Wang, together with Kevin Grice also with the American Express Private Banking were here in Cebu recently to give investment outlook in world market to Cebuano global investors.

Wang recommended that in the global investment climate, investors are advised to put their investments in equity, rather than long bonds, because of the relatively low interest rates.

Although, he declined to provide sound suggestions for bond and stock investors in the Philippines, saying he is not quite familiar of the environment, he said bond investment is still preferable for conservative investors in the Philippines, compared to equity investments, or stock market investments.

But over time, he said equity investment in the Philippines is expected to do better than bonds.

He reiterated that it is good for investors to put equity investments to companies that are manufacturing consumer goods.