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THERE is
a world of difference between a “foreign investment”
originated by foreign business but actually funded by
Filipinos, and a genuine investment by a global entity
putting its money where its mouth is—meaning, it will
pour in capital, technology and generate jobs for
Filipinos.
The
importance is relevant at this time, when, for all our
vaunted macroeconomic fundamentals—growth of a 31-year
high, as the Palace keeps repeating—we are feeling the
impact of many external factors on key planks of the
economy, such as the electronics-exports sector and the
migrant workers. If these sectors continually weaken,
then the vaunted high growth will see a decline and, in
the interim, as government economists keep saying,
productive economic activity must be compensated for by
investments in certain promising sectors.
The
government, however, doesn’t have the resources for
making massive investments, especially in
infrastructure—at the very least it must focus first on
social investments given the expanding misery all
around. So how does it see itself spurring growth amid
resource limitations? By encouraging the private sector,
both local and foreign, to undertake the priority
projects listed by the National Economic and Development
Authority (Neda) Board, as mentioned in earlier news
reports in this newspaper.
Such
projects, whether fully undertaken by the private sector
or in joint venture with the government, need to be
governed by clear guidelines, to protect both private
business and the State—and by extension taxpayers,
although recent events have shown some corrupt
bureaucrats in fact actually work against public
welfare.
This is
why the Neda-Cabinet approval of the much-awaited
joint-venture (JV) guidelines on Tuesday is significant
to ensuring, one, that businesses that bet on the
Philippines in the medium and long term will no longer
worry about rules being changed midstream either by
cronyism and corruption, on one hand, or revolving-door
disruptions in top echelons of the bureaucracy on the
other; and two, that the public interest will always be
upheld in every facet of project development.
The
approval of the guidelines comes against an interesting
background: first, the government continues to be
haunted by the still-unexplained changes in the
Executive’s stand on how the aborted national broadband
network (NBN) should be treated (from the desirable
build-operate-transfer model to one burdening Filipinos
with repayment on a $329-million Chinese loan). Even as
the dust hasn’t settled yet on the NBN-ZTE fiasco, the
government must continue processing major development
projects, including those involving the privatization of
prime assets like the former military camps under the
Bases Conversion and Development Authority.
This is
why this paper devoted much attention to the midwifing
of the joint-venture guidelines, mainly to stress that
all concerned are working under a clear —as the
Spaniards would put it, cuentas claras—system.
Having
said that, however, even the best-crafted guidelines or
rules would go to naught if the same villains behind the
mishandling of the NBN project are the given free run of
the place. Certainly, Neda—burned tragically by the
NBN-ZTE fallout—cannot be expected to put its foot down
on any effort to prostitute the JV guidelines it took
such great pains to craft.
That
burden must fall on those directly mandated to use the
guidelines to ensure the best harnessing of prime State
assets and meager financial resources.
As we
said at the start of this editorial, the only way we can
go forward with productive projects is to make sure we
tap solid foreign direct investments that signal a
genuine interest in Philippine development, and stop any
vested interest—whether in or out of government—from
championing deals that at bottom only squander, not add
to, our people’s resources. In short, we should stop any
new effort to fry us in our own lard. |
