“Xxx. With around a million Filipinos joining the labor force every year, we should be gaining a million new jobs each year, not losing them as we just did. I don’t recall seeing jobs decline in normal times over the last two decades. But since last October, when the LFS reported a whopping loss of 882,000 jobs, and again now, we have begun to see year-on-year contraction in overall employment, and right when the economy is seeing unusual growth. What gives? Xxx. Xxx. Clearly, we can’t go on with business as usual. An economy whose key growth sectors are highly concentrated in a few large players can never deliver inclusive growth. Fundamental restructuring in our economy is needed if it is to grow on a much broader base. Xxx, we need our laws—and our Constitution, where necessary—to wrest open the stranglehold that large dominant players have had on certain key industries for much too long. It is only with more competition from more players, whether from within or without, that the highly skewed and exclusive nature of the Philippine economy can significantly improve. Proposed laws to strengthen our competition policy and outlaw monopolistic practices have long been languishing in Congress, meeting stiff resistance from those who are not about to give up long-held market dominance. President Aquino would do well to ensure that we achieve this one critical legislation toward inclusive growth, which many of our Southeast Asian neighbors already have, in the remaining half of his term. On developing and strengthening small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to broaden our economic base, it is high time we turned lip service into real action. Pushing for SMEs is not a job for the Department of Trade and Industry alone; it must be a government-wide concern. If President Cory Aquino had declared agrarian reform as her centerpiece program, perhaps it’s time for her President-son to move on to a new centerpiece economic program that can make the real difference for inclusive growth: a ‘big push’ for SMEs. Their biggest impediments have always been well-known, and foremost is their lack of access to adequate finance. Xxx. Meanwhile, public research and academic institutions must focus on the technology needs of SMEs. Agriculture authorities must look beyond the farms and help foster value chain linkages between primary producers and SME processors. And SMEs must be assisted to form clusters to ensure that they can meet volume demands from institutional markets whether at home or overseas—the common Waterloo of many a small entrepreneur who prefers to go ‘kanya-kanya’ rather than ‘sama-sama.’ Inclusive growth will not happen overnight, to be sure, but the most meaningful steps must be taken now if it is to happen at all. To my mind, given his deep political capital, this President is best placed to do it.” Cielito F. Habito, Inquirer, 6/17/13.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 05:57:52 +0000
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