A large population is good for the economy

Actually we’ve been in Luzon since last Tuesday after our SuperFerry ride from Cebu together with my big bike group, the Easy Riders Club riding from the Port of Manila to Subic then on to Baguio City to attend the 15th National Convention of the Federation of Motorcycles in the Philippines (NCFMP). This is my annual sabbatical that I always attend, except a couple of years ago when the convention coincided with my US trip. Anyway, it’s always great to ride our bikes in the freeways of Luzon because we just don’t have these great roads back home in Cebu, which admittedly and unashamedly is very much behind in Metro Manila in infrastructure development.

One of the major projects for this year’s big bike convention is the “Unity Ride for the Environment (URE)” where a huge convoy of riders (some 5,000 are expected to join) from EDSA would ride to Clark in Pampanga today to promote riding safety and discipline, but bad weather due to typhoon Emong could lead to its cancellation.

We know that motorcycle related accidents have increased tremendously thanks to the so-called “Habal-Habal a.k.a. motorcycle taxi phenomenon. However, we do not have Habal-habals joining the Big Bike convention, after all, these are not big bikes. But just the same, we do need discipline from all other motorcycle riders and it is only through joining motorcycle clubs or organizations that discipline can be taught.

 While I should be focusing on my trip to Luzon, however, as we said, I will discuss a topic that disputes those economists who insist that our poverty is the result of our huge population. This was the frame of mind of the world’s leading economists in the ’70s. This is why China succumbed to that ideology by going on mass abortion with their One-Child Policy and it is the principal reason why we have people who support the Reproductive Health (RH) bill today. Many other nations literally culled their populations and are now suffering from it. I’m referring to Singapore, Japan and many European Union (EU) nations. But how things have changed since those days.

Allow me to quote from two newspaper articles. First was a report buried deep in the inside pages of the Manila Bulletin last April 30th, entitled “Large Population a Boon to Business — President Arroyo.” This is very true. Nations with large populations are considered the best global markets and China leads the pack with India close behind it. Years ago, when China’s population reached the one billionth mark, the Western countries told them that their huge population was the principal cause of their poverty. China adopted this thought and forced their One-Child Policy that allowed for the mass abortion of unwanted pregnancies and pharmaceutical companies sold billions of condoms at a great profit!

But that didn’t stop their population from growing. However a decade later, America changed its attitude towards China because as Deng Xiaoping opened up China to Capitalism, they have become the world’s largest market. Hence America gave China a “Most Favored Nation Status” (MFN). What happened in China was, its Communist Politburo threw away the Stalinist/Maoist Communist way and embraced Capitalism, retaining only Communism in its politics. Now take a good look at China today and in last week’s Newsweek magazine, China has overtaken Detroit as the world’s largest manufacturer of automobiles and the world’s largest car market!

So we ask the question again…. Should we blame our huge population for our poverty woes or should we look elsewhere? Well, let me quote from our own Philippine STAR Business article last April 24th which headlined the report, “Very Costly Doing Business in RP-WB”. This was a report by the World Bank that said, “Despite efforts to simplify business processes in the country, the cost of doing business in the Philippines is one of the highest in Southeast Asia and very little protection is given to investors.” World Bank apparently has a 2009 World Development Indicators… i.e. Doing Business indicators that measure business regulation, gauge regulatory outcomes and measure the extent of legal protection of property, flexibility of employment regulation and the tax burden on businesses. Need I say more?

Herein lays our troubles. Just when foreign investors are forming a bee line to China or India, government bureaucracy and red tape prevent investors from putting their money here. In Cebu for instance the political squabble between Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Gov. Gwen F. Garcia has prevented the entry of a foreign investor. Foreign investments mean jobs and more jobs; so if our government is the stumbling block to their entry, why blame our poverty on our population growth? Simple no?

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, “Straight from the Sky” shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8:00 in the evening.