PH prospects rosy, but infra still vital, says ADB

Increased investments in infrastructure will be crucial in enabling the Philippines to outperform its peers, particularly when the Southeast Asian region integrates into a single economic community in 2015.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Takehiko Nakao said the Philippines, despite lagging behind its neighbors in terms of development for decades, still has several competitive advantages over its peers.

“For instance, in South Korea, there are a lot of big companies, but one of the issues that is usually discussed there is, they don’t have small companies that can support these conglomerates Nakao said in a recent interview. “[Small businesses] in the Philippines can fill that space.”

Nakao noted the abundance of small-to-medium enterprises in the country.

At the end of 2011, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Philippines accounted for 99.6 percent of all businesses, employing more than 60 percent of all workers in the country, government data showed.

Another advantage of the Philippines is its long coast line, which makes it cheaper for manufacturers to ship goods.

“Ocean access is a really big resource. One of the difficulties for Central Asian countries is that they are all landlocked. The cost of transporting commodities is much more expensive [for them],” Nakao said.

He cited his native Japan, which was once brushed off economically due to its fragmented geography and scarcity of natural resources. However, he said, Japan was able to use its long coast line to boost its manufacturing sector.

“The challenge for the Philippines is really its infrastructure,” Nakao said. He said the ADB was prepared to continue supporting the Philippine government through cheap financing to improve the state of infrastructure in the country.

He said the ADB’s priority areas for the Philippines were roads and bridges, railways, energy, and social development projects that would improve basic education and social safety nets for the poor.