SYDNEY – The Philippine’s government is drawing inspiration from Lee Kuan Yew,
the founder of modern Singapore as it seeks a path to prosperity and a
developed economy, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said Thursday.
The admission that the
Philippines is looking to Singapore, one of Asia’s most important financial
hubs, shows the depth of ambition gripping Manila as the global power balance
continues its shift towards Asia.
In an interview here during a
trip to drum up support from Australian investors, Mr. Purisima said the
development of the city state of Singapore into one of Asia’s most important
financial and transport centers in recent decades is a model.
“Singapore is like a growing
organism,” said Mr. Purisima. “Those watching from afar watch it with envy how
far sighted they are,” he said.
Fast economic growth, strong
investor inflows and a high profile anti corruption agenda put in place by
President Benigno Aquino has made the Philippines one of the region’s star
performers.
The Southeast Asian country’s
gross domestic product expanded at an annual pace of 6.1% in the first half of
this year, faster than the government’s full-year target of 5%-6%, driven by
higher public spending and steady growth in private consumption due to
remittances.
That growth has helped push the
Philippines credit rating to within one level below investment grade according
to Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.
Spelling out a confident outlook
for his country, Mr. Purisima highlighted goals to double tourist arrivals from
an expected 4.8 million this year to 10 million by 2016. He wants business
process outsourcing–a way for multinationals to control costs by locating some
operations offshore–to be a 25 billion dollar industry by 2016 from 11 billion
dollars now.
Advice on how to grow the mining
industry and opportunities for public private partnerships has been taken from
the UK’s Treasury department, the Australian and Chilean governments, the Asian
Development bank and others.
“Clearly we want to learn from
other countries,” he said.
Taking a pragmatic view of the
dispute between Manila and Beijing in the contested waters of the South China
Sea, Mr. Purisima said the “multi dimensional” nature of relations between the
two countries mean the spat doesn’t pose an overwhelming threat to stability.
To be sure, there are risks. A
spike in oil prices would hurt the energy importing nation and cleaning up
corruption remains a challenge.
“We’ve seen less anecdotes of
corruption. There’s still corruption but it’s something we don’t tolerate,” he
said.
But for now, luring foreign
capital isn’t proving difficult for Mr. Purisima.
“Money is not the issue. The
issue is how you deploy this money in a productive manner,” he said.
Enda Curran and Almar Latour
Business & Investment Opportunities
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