"I was in Bangkok for a brief visit last week, and felt the same sadness I’ve always felt each time I’ve visited there in recent times. Thailand’s economy was a virtual identical twin of ours about four decades ago. In 1970, we had exactly the same average annual income or GDP per capita ($250), very similar economic structures in terms of sectoral composition of output, identical population (36 million), and even the same population growth rate (3.1 percent per year). We were teaching many things to the Thais back then, including and especially in the agricultural sciences. I grew up in Los Baños when Thai overseas students were a common sight in the UP College of Agriculture campus. My sadness comes from knowing all the above, while also knowing how far we have fallen behind Thailand in agriculture and overall economic development. As of 2010, Thailand’s per capita income ($5,325) was well over twice ours ($2,215). Our population was 92.6 million against Thailand’s 67.3 million, or a difference roughly equivalent to the entire population of Mindanao. The share of the industry sector (including manufacturing) in Thailand’s total output grew from 23 to 40 percent from 1970 to 2010; in the Philippines, industry’s share only inched up from 28 to 33 percent. Rice in Thailand now costs only half as much as ours, and the country is a major rice exporter; we have become the largest rice importer worldwide. But what particularly struck me again last week was seeing such a rich variety of dried tropical fruit products fetching rather steep prices at Suvarnabhumi Airport’s duty-free shops. I cannot see why we are unable to do as much with our own abundant fruits, especially in Mindanao." Read more: opinion.inquirer.net/58751/road-map-to-reindustrialization#ixzz2bpeM2xaY Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook Read more: opinion.inquirer.net/58751/road-map-to-reindustrialization#ixzz2bpe7TVPS Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 07:33:04 +0000
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