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By Sammy Martin Reporter
FILIPINO businessmen should invest heavily in the country in order
to generate jobs and not wait for the government to shield the
country against the ill effects of the global economic meltdown,
economist Benjamin Diokno said over the weekend.
He challenged Filipinos working abroad to invest
their earnings here and be one of the small and medium entrepreneurs
who have proven their track records in local business and help fuel
the economy by employing their countrymen
“The loss of jobs means loss of income, rising
poverty and finally higher incidence of hunger. Unless addressed,
the Philippines will be faced with social unrest. For our national
leaders, it can’t be business as usual,” Diokno said in a media
forum yesterday.
He said many Filipino businessmen have invested
heavily in neighboring countries and even deposited their money in
Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
Instead of letting their money sleep in the
banks, Diokno said they can use at least the interest of their money
to put up business in the country and help fellow Filipinos to get a
decent job as well as keep the economy working.
“Unemployment will continue to deteriorate
primarily because of some 1.5 million, possibly more, new entrants
to the labor force,” he said. “This is on top of the existing
9.5-million unemployed and underemployed Filipinos. Additional
pressure will come from returning Filipino workers who have no
enough savings to start their own business.”
According to Diokno, the Arroyo administration
should stop pretending that it is on top of the situation despite
the lack of preparation to combat the ill effects of the economic
meltdown.
Diokno’s predicted that the gross domestic
product growth will slow to 3 percent next year while the average
annual inflation rate will be lower at 7 percent.
Unemployment and underemployment situation will
worsen, he added.
“The lower growth in 2009 will be due to weak
consumption and private investment. Consumption spending will be
less robust because of lower real income [due to deteriorating
employment situation] and weak consumer confidence,” he explained.
Diokno expects private investment to be weak,
possibly negative, because of uncertainty and weak consumer demand.
Firms are also unlikely to invest in new or expanded plants.
“On the supply side, manufactured exports will
continue to struggle. The service sector will also slow, especially
telecommunications, retail and wholesale trade, real estate sector
and banks and financial intermediaries,” he pointed out.
He added that the government should stop saying
that the economic storm is coming because it has arrived and as a
result, the Philippine economy has slowed sharply from a gross
domestic product of 7.3 percent in 2007 to 4.2 percent to 4.5
percent this year. In 2009, the economy is projected to slow further
to 3 percent.
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