PH joins Vietnam, 8 others as markets of the future

THE PHILIPPINE economy is poised to achieve robust growth during and beyond the Duterte administration, with the biggest winners to come from the automotive and construction sectors, according to the Fitch Group’s BMI Research.

The prospects came as BMI Research named the Philippines among the “10 emerging markets of the future,” alongside Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan.

These countries, it said, would add about $4.3 trillion to the global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025 “providing significant opportunities for investors.”

BMI Research noted the Philippines and a handful of other economies on the list have achieved a sufficient level of internal scale allowing them “to enjoy strong growth across a range of sectors in the coming decade.”

“Ongoing economic and business environment reforms, such as an anti-corruption drive, have made the Philippines more conducive to investment,” BMI Research said. “We therefore expect greater private sector investment over the coming years.”

It noted investment as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP) would jump to 30 percent by 2025 against 19.7 percent in 2014. Much of that would go to the “already fast-growing” construction sector, with transport infrastructure getting the lion’s share at 60 percent, or $54.9 billion, BMI Research said.

Passenger and commercial vehicles would also be in high demand. By 2020, BMI Research said annual production would hit 410,000 units from 140,000 in 2015.

Last week, President Duterte had given his approval for economic managers to forge ahead with plans for “24/7” work on infrastructure projects. This was in line with plans to increase infrastructure spending to 5.2 percent of GDP by 2017. DBS Bank Ltd. said the Aquino administration had spent an average of 2.2 percent annually for infrastructure.

Investors were already placing early bets on the country’s construction sector.

Cemex Holdings Philippines launched its P25.1-billion initial public offering to strong investor demand. The company’s trading debut at the Philippine Stock Exchange was set on July 18.

Given its big role in implementing projects, the Transportation Department was also seeking to revise existing rules on public private partnership projects and to speed up the implementation process, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said in a previous briefing.

There were 13 PPP projects valued at about P400 billion already under procurement when the Aquino administration ended. These deals were left for the Duterte administration to implement.