Pinoy Business Coach

The original article can be read here.  We, at Pinoy Business Coach believe that saving is start of any income generating activity (IGA), here is a sad story of a person who had a lot of money but did not have a good plan to save, read that article through this link. The term Pay Yourself First.is directly linked to saving, here is it's definition.

CEBU CITY—The Philippines has to promote the value of saving among Filipinos and invest in physical infrastructure to catch up with the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) 5, a leading Filipino economist said.

Asean 5 is a grouping of the region’s better-performing countries including Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

“For a P10-trillion economy, we need to invest P500 billion per year and do improvements in terms of building modern infrastructure like airports, roads, bridges and even invest on power plants for us to hit our growth targets,” said University of the Philippines (UP) economics professor and former budget secretary Benjamin Diokno.

Diokno spoke during the recent general membership meeting of the Philippine Retailers Association-Cebu chapter.

“We are a spending society. Unless we have a strong inclination to save, we would not be able to help the economy grow faster,” he said.

The country’s economic managers forecast the country’s economy to grow between 5.5 and 6.5 percent and a “fighting target” of seven to eight percent, which according to Diokno is “close to impossible.”

Diokno said the country still has reasons to remain optimistic as it managed to perform better despite the slow growth in the US economy and the euro-zone crisis.

He said the country has “windows of opportunities” now that China-based companies are looking for alternative destinations for their manufacturing activities.

“China’s labor cost has gone up, which is likely a product of their one-child policy. China-based firms are looking for an alternative business destination and the Philippines is one of the candidates,” Diokno said.

Diokno said the plan by President Benigno S. Aquino III to revive manufacturing in the Philippines is “welcome news” for the country after it has taken a beating because of high power costs here and cheaper labor cost in China.

But Diokno said the government should fix things to make the Philippines an attractive place for foreign and domestic manufacturers.

Diokno said the government should address the number of jobs lost in manufacturing.

“There is hope if the government acts. Improvements don’t happen overnight but the government should pay attention to this,” he said.

Among the things the government should fix is the expensive and unreliable supply of electricity.

He said short-term measures, such as power barges, are going to lead to higher power rates.

Diokno said the government should also address the high costs of doing business, fix its crumbling public infrastructure, and create clear and sustainable policies to make the country competitive with other Asian neighbors. 

*There is hope if the government acts but most importantly there is hope if YOU act, save your money & consider using that money to start your own business ventures.  When one is prepared, opportunity comes knocking.