We need to work for a new policy direction for the economy.
Which way? Our stand is that we need to adopt a new policy framework,
a policy framework which allows Philippine industry and agriculture
to develop in a mutually reinforcing manner, create jobs and value
added, reduce dependence on imports by deepening the agro-industrial
structure through R & D and continuous technological innovations,
foster necessary linkages between the regions and the various economic
sectors, expand the export market while maintaining the domestic market
in the hands of the locals, and distributing the gains of economic
growth through appropriate institutional arrangements and capability-building
programs.
As to globalization, the real issue revolves around the terms of
Philippine incorporation in the world market. This means negotiating
for fair trading arrangements which can give the country better returns
and which can reinforce, not subvert, existing industries and enterprises.
How can this reorientation of the economy be achieved?
We need a pro-Filipino and pro-active government. A pro-Filipino
and proactive government is one that should be able to assert and
enhance our national interests in the global and regional trading
arenas as well as anticipate threats and develop opportunities to
local industry and agriculture. A pro-Filipino and proactive government
is not tied to the free-trade neoliberal economic dogma which says
that the role of the government is to minimize its role in the economy
and allow the free flow of capital and goods in a liberalized, deregulated
and privatized market. In an asymmetrical, uneven, underdeveloped
and globally unprepared economy, this free-trade neoliberal recipe
is an invitation to disaster.
A pro-Filipino and proactive government should be focused on
• enhancing the overall capability of industry and agriculture
to survive, grow and expand in a harsh and uneven economic environment
through the development of appropriate and forward-looking infrastructure,
monetary, fiscal, R&D and institutional support measures;
• developing the full potentials of the home market in sustaining
and creating decent jobs and sustainable enterprises through the promotion
of vibrant community-based economic activities and strong agro-industrial
and interregional linkages;
• identifying, preserving and developing strategic industries
such as those involving the food security of the nation and the base
for the future development of new industries;
• identifying, preserving and developing global niches for
the economy; and
• applying without any hesitation corrective measures to level
the economic playing field such as the adoption of timely and necessary
countermeasures against dumping, unfair trading practices of other
nations, smuggling, economic plunder and so on.
A pro-Filipino and proactive government should be able to exert
maximum efforts to develop the depth and breadth as well as sustain
the modernization and dynamism of the agroindustrial structure. This
means promoting more and continuous value-adding economic activities
and greater complementation between and among industries and between
and among the regions. This means the major economic sectors—industry,
agriculture, services, export sector—should be developed in
an integrated, complementary, value-adding manner. Such requires R
& D, strategic positioning or niching, industry-led skills formation,
infrastructure development and supporting institutions to promote
linkages, cooperation and a buy-Filipino mentality to replace the
colonial one.
A pro-Filipino and proactive government should give special attention
to the upgrading of SMEs, microenterprises and cooperatives—for
what these enterprises need is greater access not only to credit but
also to new management and marketing techniques to upgrade their operations
and ensure their survival and growth in a highly competitive market.
A pro-Filipino and proactive government should hasten agricultural
modernization by investing on education and human resources development
for the farming population, putting an end to the slow-motion implementation
of land reform and adopting an integrated, not a piecemeal, approach
in dealing with problems in the countryside. The government should
review and recall the neoliberal policy of agricultural deregulation
in favor of a proactive and multipronged program of developing a diversified
agro-food system based on our tropical climate and which is responsive
to the energy, protein and food requirements of our people.
Finally, a pro-Filipino and pro-active government must be able to
negotiate for a more orderly, just and dignified settlement of the
debt problem. After decades of debt payments, the Philippines remains
under the tighter and tighter embrace of the IMF-World Bank, whose
policy conditionalities often lead to a vicious circle of low growth
and greater indebtedness.
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From abs-cbnNEWS.com
