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Business leaders bare suggestions to build on PH gains

Chris Schnabel

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Business leaders bare suggestions to build on PH gains
Leaders from the power, finance, and real estate industries chart their growth and suggest further reforms in 2016 and beyond

MANILA, Philippines – Business leaders detailed the reforms that they believe would help further drive their respective industries on the back of gains fostered by the Aquino administration over the past 5 years.

Leading figures from the finance, real estate and energy sectors bared their suggestions for the final lap of the Aquino administration, and their hopes for the next administration at the EJAP-ING forum, “The Philippines’ Transformation Story: Sustaining the Gains,” held on June 3 in Makati.

Boost renewable energy program

“The power sector is moving in the right direction, it’s just taking some time for all  the proper reforms to be put in place,” said Francis Giles Puno, President and CEO of First Gen Corporation.

He mentioned the area of renewable energy as one that is ripe for improvement.

“Renewable energy is particularly relevant to the country as we don’t have a lot of fossil fuel and so we have to import it. We have to develop more indigenous sources of renewable energy,” Puno said.

He said there should be a “sustained” implementation of the provisions of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.

Geothermal energy, which is abundant in the country, could be given more attention, Puno said.

“We are essentially the global leader in geothermal energy. Geothermal is cheaper than wind and yet there’s no feed in tariff (FIT) for it,” he said.

Puno suggested creating an FIT for geothermal energy that would entice the market to develop it.

“That’s something we can improve on. As long as the cost of geothermal energy comes in a few cents below coal, then it would be good for creating a source of baseload energy that stems from renewable sources,” he said.

Good BSP, DOF chiefs

“The greatest reason for the transformation of real estate business is availability of credit and low interest rates,” said Frederick Go, President of Robinsons Land Corporation.

Go said that given such considerations, the industry places importance on a good Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor and a good finance chief.

He also hoped that the next administration would continue to promote the tourism industry to support the hotel sector, with particular focus on strengthening domestic tourism.

Go further highlighted the importance of government support for the business process outsourcing sector which he described as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.

“It is so important that the next administration continues to give PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority) more authority, and probably give them the power to continue granting incentives in these sectors,” he said.

Overseas expansion

With regards to the banking sector, Manuel Salak IIIManaging Director of ING Bank NV in Singapore, said, “With a series of reforms instituted resulting of our banks being there with high capitalization and good solvency ratios, reflective of regulators making sure reforms are on top of this.” 

Salak mentioned that ASEAN banks would be going through a trend of internationalization in the next few years, and that the Philippines along with Indonesia are lagging behind this trend, in terms of setting up overseas braches and networks.

“If we’re talking about an integrated stock market and bond market, we still need to align our regulations, our compliance policies and our set of standards,” he said.

Improved public spending

Budget secretary Florencio Abad was also present in the discussion, where he outlined his thoughts on the political transition as well as the administration’s continued reforms.

The budget chief said that President Benigno Aquino III has called for a meeting to further look into the government’s spending problems, so that the it can take more decisive action to address bottlenecks at the agency level.

Abad also confirmed that he has signed a Department Order for the implementation of a permanent delivery system to be co-chaired by the National Economic and Development Authority and the Department of Budget and Management.

He said that every department at the level of the undersecretary will have to establish a full-time delivery unit and all it will do is to make sure that disbursements are accelerated.

“Hopefully with this in place, we can see improvements in disbursements,” Abad said. – Rappler.com

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