Biz leaders highlight need for stable policies to spur economic growth

In photo (L-R): Stratbase Group Chief Operating Officer RP Manhit, Ayala Corporation Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Acciona Infrastructure Chief Executive Officer Jose Diaz-Caneja, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation Director for Government and Public Affairs Atty. Mike Toledo, and Stratbase President Dindo Manhit at the Pilipinas Conference 2024, organized by the Stratbase Group.

Top business leaders emphasized the need for stable policies to ensure economic growth in 2025 during the recent Pilipinas Conference 2024.

During a panel discussion, Ayala Corporation Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala highlighted the importance of upholding the sanctity of contracts and ensuring long term policy stability to encourage more investments in the country.

“I have always been a great believer that private capital should be used extensively to address some of the public sector pain points in the country. For that, you need an environment that is friendly to that type of collaboration between the public and private sector,” Zobel de Ayala said.

“For that, the contracts have to remain sacred. And one must be consistent in the framework that is accepted by the government. And if that is given some stability over long periods of time, then you’ll see a lot of private capital in some of the bigger areas of the country,“ he explained.

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Prime Infra president and Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Lucci said the primary challenge in infrastructure development is the implementation of policies in the local level.

“I don’t think national policies are really the problem, frankly. I think what happens often is there’s a little bit of a disconnect between sophisticated quality national policies and how they get implemented at the local level,” Lucci said.

“If there is one area of bottleneck, I would say that is the implementation of those policies at the LGU level,” he added.

Meanwhile, Acciona Infrastructure Chief Executive Officer Jose Diaz-Caneja said there is a need to ensure that policies and projects apply in the long term, not just in one administration.

“I think it’s a question of having a little bit longer vision and not just looking at what you have in front of you. Not thinking in electoral periods, because infrastructures cannot be linked to these short periods,” Diaz-Caneja explained.

“lf we are thinking in developing the relevant infrastructure that would have an effect in the lives of people, we need to be thinking in a much, much longer term. So, the agreement between the different administrations and even the different potential political parties, it’s absolutely crucial,” he said.

Diaz-Caneja also said cooperation among different stakeholders involved in the planning and execution of a project is crucial to its success.

Similarly, Stratbase Group President Dindo Manhit emphasized the need for strategic collaboration between the government and private sector to spur economic growth.

“The government sets the direction and creates the enabling environment, while the private sector brings in the capital, innovation, and efficiency needed to implement large-scale projects and be a reliable driver for new industries that support a multitude of linked businesses. Together, government and the private sector can build a more resilient and competitive economy, addressing both immediate challenges and long-term goals,” he added.

Several business leaders also expressed their commitment to help the government achieve its goals, particularly in the transition to clean energy and green industries.

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Meralco PowerGen Corporation president and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel Rubio said MGen is committed to delivering the Terra Solar project, a 3,500-megawatt peak solar facility with 4,500 megawatt-hours of battery energy storage.

“This is today the biggest configuration, the largest configuration of contiguous solar facility in the world, and the biggest battery installation once delivered. Hopefully, the first phase is going to be completed by February 2026,” Rubio said.

“But what’s more important is that this project is able to prove that a combination of variable renewable energy and energy storage, and in this case in the form of lithium-ion battery, is really competitive in providing mid-merit, compared to a fossil fuel fired-plant like LNG and coal. So it’s really a viable option,” he added.