GMA vows to make RP investment-friendly

President Arroyo vowed yesterday to make the Philippines investment-friendly through sweeping economic and political reforms, investments in digital technology, and a tougher anti-corruption campaign.

Addressing high-powered delegates to the influential Asia-Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce (APCAC) annual meeting at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City, the President also took potshots at her political opponents, saying their efforts to overthrow her would only hurt the recovering yet still fragile economy.

"Our economy is strong, our commitment to reform is solid and if we speak about reform, we talk about reforms that have to do with fiscal reforms, revenue collections, and anti-corruption," Mrs. Arroyo said.

"American businessmen from all over the Asia-Pacific, businessmen from all over the world who are doing big business here in the Philippines, we will do our part to make the Philippines a business-friendly place to live, work and invest," she said.

The President was welcomed by APCAC chairman George Drysdale Jr., American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines chairman Rick Santos, and AmCham executive director Robert Sears.

Also present were Trade Secretary Peter Favila and US Embassy Chargé d’ Affaires Paul Jones.

APCAC is made up of 26 member AmChams united in their efforts to bolster the competitiveness of American enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region. It represents the interests of over 10,000 business entities and 50,000 executives in 19 countries in the region.

The APCAC membership manages trade volumes of over $400 billion and direct investments worth over $200 billion.

The conference’s theme — "Is the World Really Flat?" — was designed to give the delegates an opportunity to network with their peers in the region amid a revolution in information and communications technology.

"Yes, the world is flat. And the flatter it gets, the more it helps the Philippines create a new economy and leave behind an old economy and an old political system," the President said, referring to New York Times’ columnist Tom Friedman’s concept on how the world’s economic playing field was being "leveled" by technology, particularly outsourcing.

"There is a revolution in technology that you all know about because you are movers and shakers of the world and this shift in technology is linking the world and creating new collaboration and opportunity like no other time in world history," she said.

"It is a good time to be able to speak with the foreign business community today, given that the American business community is such a major part of the foreign investment community," Mrs. Arroyo said.

She said recent attempts to destabilize her five-year-old administration have been largely "discounted" by the markets — as shown by the strong peso, popular Philippine bonds, and the rise in the local stock market index.

She also warned that the country’s favorable economic indicators would not be sustained if the opposition persisted in efforts to overthrow her as they did in the recent coup attempt against her with the active participation of left-wing communist rebels and rightist elements.

"But woe to the backward-looking political opportunists who stoop to unholy alliances with the apostles of an ideology already discredited by the world. To them my message is, the market will punish our nation and our people if we stray from constitutional democracy," the President said.

She said there is a "revolution in technology" that is linking the world and creating new collaborations and opportunities unprecedented in history.

She said investments in high-speed Internet and fiber-optic cable technology have led to an explosion in the outsourcing industry in the Philippines, creating 125,000 new jobs in Manila, Cebu, Clark in Pampanga, Davao, Dumaguete and Baguio.

Call centers and outsourcing businesses were unheard of in the country five years ago and now they have sprouted nationwide and are expected to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the years to come, she said.

Mrs. Arroyo also said the revolution in technology has allowed thousands of Filipinos to be part of the global high-tech environment, as evidenced by the fact that the largest overseas production facility of microchip maker Intel Corp. is located in the Philippines.

"The revolution in technology will help liberate generations of poor people and give them the tools they need to move from obscurity and poverty into a new entrepreneurial middle class," Mrs. Arroyo said.

To keep up with the rapid evolution of technology and the power of the marketplace, she said, the government is reforming its political system "to make our democracy move faster," referring to efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution to shift to a parliamentary government and lift restrictive economic provisions in the Charter.

"I am committed to micro-finance and the power of entrepreneurs not micro-management and state-run enterprises. I want to create engineers, not sloganeers. I want to create good jobs, not mindless mobs," she said.

The President said her administration’s philosophy is to be a partner to business and people without dictating or interfering in the market place.

"We are just an e-mail away. We are under scrutiny 24/7. This opens up our societies and creates greater accountability and transparency," she added.

Mrs. Arroyo also vowed to pursue a tough campaign against corruption and smuggling, as in yesterday’s massive raid in Binondo, which she described as the biggest raid against smugglers in the history of the Philippines.

The raid was conducted by over 500 Customs officials and agents at a mall in Divisoria, Manila after retailers complained of being disadvantaged by cheap smuggled goods at the establishment.