PIDS: RP economy 20 yrs behind Asian neighbors

The Philippines is now 20 years behind dynamic neighbors in Asia in creating wealth and new jobs and solving its chronic poverty problem.

This was the assessment of a team of Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) economists led by its president Josef Yap, in a research paper titled The Philippine Economy: Structural Issues presented to a cross section of the business community and the academe at the Neda in Makati City the other day.

In terms of per capita gross domestic product (GDP), the Philippines last year was valued at $1,378 landing seventh lowest among similarly situated economies in the region in the 1960s. On top of the heap was Hong Kong with a $35,671 per capita GDP last year followed by Singapore with $32,111.

Taipei came in third with $19,260, followed by Korea at $15,372, Malaysia at $5,264 and Thailand with $2,751.

At the tailend of the list was Indonesia with per capita GDP of 1,180 which landed it just a few dollars behind the Philippines in per capita GDP.

With corruption being tamed by its new President in the past few years, Indonesia is expected to shortly outpace the Philippines in growth and development.

In the region’s struggle to tame poverty, the Philippines’ record, said Yap, was dismal. It now has the highest poverty rate of 26 out of every 100 families in the ranks of the poor, 22 of them surviving on less than $1.25 (roughly P55) a day.

Vietnam, considered poorer than the Philippines five years ago, has been more successful in its anti-poverty program, reducing the very poor among its citizens to 13 for every 100 families. Malaysia has been tops by getting very close to having only two families still poor out of every hundred.

On top of the reasons PIDS found behind the country’s puzzling slide to the bottom is the fact that few moneyed people have been putting stakes in the economy and there is an utter lack of entrepreneurship in the Philippines.

Second cause of the “bonsai” economy sickness that the Philippines has fallen into, is the lack of infrastructure support led by electricity and transportation facilities.

A third big cause are the country’s weak institutions that have spawned governance concerns like endemic corruption and layers and layers of red tape. –PhilExport News and Features