On why Mr. Banayao is alone in his IT niche

Mr. Ronquillo, good column. The reason we have no great successes in IT like Mr. Banayao is that our policymakers and private-sector leaders during the Cory Aquino regime stupidly believed the then World Bank and International Finance Corporation mantra to GLOBALIZE OR PERISH! This ideology meant that the economically inferior countries should concentrate their resources on their SERVICE INDUSTRIES and export these so that they can GLOBALIZE. Therefore, the financially inferior countries like ours would have to abandon INDUSTRIALIZATION and AGRICULTURAL MODERNIZATION and expensive efforts to become SELF-SUFFICIENT in rice and food products, Anyway, we were told wrongly, Filipinos could buy all the factory-made products and food products cheaply from abroad.

Now, 30 years later, the World Bank et al. are blaming the persistence of Philippine massive unemployment and pandemic poverty on the policy to abandon manufacturing and agriculture and agri-business.