Apec to sharpen next PH admin’s focus

THE PHILIPPINES’ hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) is seen as a significant opportunity to showcase the issues that the country’s next president should focus on in terms of continued reforms, according to the head of the American Chamber of Commerce Philippines.

“We think Apec is a great opportunity to showcase all that’s going well in the Philippines, but also some of the things that maybe the next president can think about in 2016,” AmCham president Rick Santos said on the sidelines of the Apec 2015 CEO Cocktails Monday night.

“As the Philippines moves toward a presidential (election year), it might be good to take a look at the Arangkada documents and the proposed government reforms on infrastructure, education and security. I think in light of some things we’ve seen in Paris, security is paramount as well. In infrastructure, there is a focus on the public private partnership program while education is very important not just primary but the secondary, vocational and tertiary as well,” Santos said.

“One of the great things that the Philippines has going for it now is demographics. The Philippines and India are both really strong and compared to other big countries (in the region) such as Thailand and Japan, their demographics aren’t nearly as good. We think there is a great opportunity for the Philippines to grow and keep expanding not just in the outsourcing sector as we also see manufacturing increasing,” he added.

Santos disclosed that the office space takeup of the IT-business process outsourcing (BPO) industry alone was seen expanding to 6 million square feet this year and is expected to further increase to 8.5 million sqf in three years’ time.

“We see continued and renewed interest from American companies in the outsourcing sector, manufacturing, infrastructure and in tourism as well. Tourism is an area where there are great opportunities now. We see the Philippines potentially becoming the next Thailand. Also, there is an interest in gaming with gaming companies starting to come here and we see that to be another bright spot in terms of hotels, tourists and leisure activities,” he explained.

While the US government has a program that seeks to bring back crucial manufacturing jobs to its country, Santos said he believed that the US would continue to outsource and manufacture in the Philippines as Asia provided economically viable opportunities for certain types of jobs.

“Some of the (American companies) are looking for an alternate (location) to China. A lot of the Japanese companies have already moved here. (In my view) there are certain skills you can get in Asia that are cost effective. With the labor and cost arbitrage opportunities, the US will continue to outsource and manufacture here,” he added.