With all of the important and critical events happening on the global economic front, it is unfortunate we are in the campaign season, where information is simply food for political propaganda to sway voters.
The latest are the comments from a ranking official of the Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro). In a recent visit to the Philippines, Jetro Executive Vice President Tatsuhiro Shindo was quoted as saying that the Philippines has moved up on the Japanese investors’ list of their most favored destinations in Asia.
The political pundits immediately jumped on this sentiment as a clear indication of who should be elected the next president. Interestingly, Shindo has nothing to do at all with Japan’s investments in Asia. He is in charge of the Chicago, USA, office, and is responsible to facilitate business development between Japan and companies in the 12-state Midwest region.
The Philippines may be on Japan’s “most favored list of investment destinations,” but it would appear that the Japanese are not putting their money where their nice sentiments are.
For the last reporting period—2014—Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) to the Philippines increased by 3.8 percent over the previous year. By comparison, investment in other regional nations substantially increased: China, 6.3 percent; Thailand, 17.4 percent; Vietnam, 11.3 percent; and Indonesia, 19.4 percent.
In fact, the average yearly increase in Japanese FDI from 2004 to 2009 was 18 percent, and since 2010 has averaged 6.3 percent. Since 2010, the average year-on-year increase in Japan’s FDI to the other nations has been growing: Vietnam, 24 percent; Indonesia, 19 percent; Thailand, 17 percent; and Malaysia, 10 percent.
Shindo also cited Japan’s “China Plus One” investment strategy so as to avoid putting all its investment “eggs” just in China’s “basket”. He said: “Recently, we are pushing more for China Plus One means Philippines.” About this time in 2015, the same comment was made about Vietnam being the destination of choice after China.
Perhaps this time, favorable comments about investing in the Philippines will be followed by companies actually writing checks for their investment. However, it probably would be a sensible idea to leave the political rhetoric for the campaign trail and face the realities of the challenges the economy faces.
1 comment
hahaha