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FORMER
President Fidel Ramos said Sunday the country may not be
able to achieve the predicted 6.9-percent gross domestic
product (GDP) growth by the end of the year because of
the weakening contribution of the agriculture sector and
an unhealthy reliance on remittances from overseas
Filipino workers.
After
touting the country’s 7.5-percent GDP growth in the
second quarter, President Arroyo was quoted as being
confident a 7-percent growth rate for the second half of
the year was attainable on the back of higher
projections for the service and industry sectors.
The
government also expects the agriculture, fisheries and
forestry sectors to rebound in the second half owing to
the rains.
But
Ramos said the projected growth would fail unless many
things are done, like Congress eliminating the
“overprotective” features of existing laws and those in
the Constitution.
He said
constraints to foreign investors are the lack of modern
infrastructure—which swells the cost of doing business
in the Philippines—and the absence of a corporate
culture in the face of a globalized economy, preventing
just-in-time delivery of goods.
“So any
jampacked roads, bridges, seaports and airports as we
are seeing right now, like in the Naia 1, 2 and 3 are
constraints to the movements of goods and services and
people throughout and from the Philippines.”
Ramos
said that electric power supply could be another
constraint. He cited the Asian Development Bank
assessment that for the Philippines to be lifted out of
poverty, “there should be a constant annual GDP growth
from six percent to eight percent for the next nine to
12 years.”
He said
this timetable is already going beyond the Millennium
Development Goal deadline of 2015.
“In
other words, if we want to reach our Millennium
Development Goals, to which we are already committed, we
must grow at even more than six percent to eight
percent.”
The
former president said that to achieve such a high rate,
the government must address the problems on many fronts,
like policy structure and business culture in the
country.
Ramos,
addressing his concern to Congress, said that with
prodding from the Executive, the country must look into
the golden opportunity and pass a less litigious
reclamation law, following the landmark decision last
August 15, upholding and validating as legal and
constitutional the Smokey Mountain Development and
Reclamation Project.
He said
opportunities lost are difficult to regain, but time
lost cannot be regained, “and so for us to reach the
stage where we should be, we must work double time.”
Asked if
the remaining three years of the Arroyo administration
are enough to break the barriers to high GDP growth,
Ramos said this is possible “if it really works 25 hours
a day, eight days a week.”
That
means double time on many fronts, economic, social,
cultural, security and international relations, he said. |
