Comments for Philippines Investment

Comment on What would it take to stop the mass exodus of Filipinos to the first world? by jgy777ph

jgy777ph — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:16:25 +0000

Selfless governance, honesty and integrity.
Try reading – Lee Kwan Yu’s from third world to first.

Comment on What would it take to stop the mass exodus of Filipinos to the first world? by XIZOR

XIZOR — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:42:09 +0000

As what the peasants of France said during the French Revolution said,

“Liberty. Equality. Freedom”

Not on a distorted sense. But in its pure, real meaning. It’s our choice how will we pursue it: in a violnet or non-violent way….

Comment on What would it take to stop the mass exodus of Filipinos to the first world? by tonetteski

tonetteski — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:38:49 +0000

this really made me think…
i will be calling now the president herself. she have the power to stop the drain and pull the country out of the mud. before i disagree on family planning but now i have to change my stand on that. the population status as of July 2006 was estimated to 89,468,677.
how can you feed this population when only a small number of percentage can afford the basic needs and a large number are jobless.i can site japans economic progress. they started from scratch after the bombing of Hiroshima and the drastic measure that they did to re-build their country. it is amazing.

second to population control would be to educate Filipinos and discourage them of taking white collar jobs. instead, take agriculture, fishery and aquatics, electronics, etc. Philippines is rich in land and we should concentrate on our natural resources, utilize it and i believe that this will be one of the answers to help us attain our goal.

the government should invest on modern agricultural machinery and technology to help the farmers yield a very good harvest and our rice compared to other countries have better quality.

Oriental stores here are selling rice from Thailand and Vietnam. Why not Philippines? Did you know that our neighboring Asian countries got their education on agriculture in the Philippines and go back to their country and apply what they have learned. Hindi “bobo” ang Pilipino and we are hardworkers.

Our natural resources is so rich that the government should impose a strict law on dynamite fishing and extend full support to our fishermen. provide them the advance technology in fishing. they have the funds and they should utilize it properly.

our natural resources is very rich and this is the only way that i can see that’s our “own” that we can utilize and in a year or so, i believe we can see and feel the change.

Comment on What would it take to stop the mass exodus of Filipinos to the first world? by IveBeenThere

IveBeenThere — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:53:32 +0000

This is a very difficult problem, and I can’t spend a lot of time writing about it here. My feeling is that there are two types of people in the Philippines.
The first are the ones at or near the poverty line. These people are hard working and will do anything to raise their standard of living. Since there are few options for work to make good money the obvious choice is to leave the country.
The second are the rich. These people like the status quo and the cost of living. To them there is no reason to change the way things are because to do so would only raise the cost of living.
What you need are a new class of citizens. Ones who not only want to raise the own standard of living for themselves but also their community. People who are not interested in just escaping poverty but also want to make a real change in the lives of others.
This class of citizens needs to be corruption proof because once they enter into civil service they may be tempted into corrupt behavior because it’s easier to get real work done. This is the slippery slope of Philippine politics.
You won’t find people like this in the wealthy unless they are so rich that they don’t need to surround themselves with corrupt politicians to maintain their place in society.
It will be difficult to grow a class of people like this because it is too easy to just throw up your hands and just leave the country. The problem is that there are so many that are left behind fighting the same fight that others did.
I don’t see the class difference in the Philippines going away any time soon. I feel very bad for the poor people there.
Good luck on your report.

Comment on What would it take to stop the mass exodus of Filipinos to the first world? by stilleto

stilleto — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:16:48 +0000

God there’s a lot to mention…but all I can say it always has something with every filipinos attitude towards being prosperous.

Comment on What would it take to stop the mass exodus of Filipinos to the first world? by BIG CHUCK

BIG CHUCK — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:54:14 +0000

I think that “papars” answer is close to the mark.
Is there such a big educated middle class exodus?
The majority of OFW’s are either house maids,carers,hotel staff,gardeners or labourers (and I am not trying to insult these people as they are giving a vital boost to the Philippine economy) but hardly a brain drain.
From what I have seen the OFW nurses,doctors and dentists are being trained specifically for work overseas and their numbers are constantly being replenished with new trainees.
This “exodus” is not pushing the country closer to economic collapse at all, if anything it is the only thing that is stopping the Philippines from going into a meltdown. Just imagine the chaos if all the OFW’s with held sending gifts and money back home for 3 months.
To improve the economy the Government needs to concentrate on improving tourism and to make it easier for foreign investment/ownership. These two alone create a lot of employment opportunities and cash flow.

Comment on What would it take to stop the mass exodus of Filipinos to the first world? by papars

papars — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:33:54 +0000

The brain-drain you mention has in-fact, benefitted the Philippines to some extent. Filipino nationals settled abroad, whether in Asia, Middle East, Europe or North America- are contributing vital foreign currency to the country’s national exchequer. Their remittances are the Philippines single largest source of foreign exchange.

A majority of skilled and educated Filipinos leave or wish to leave the Philippines for one main reason- financial gain. And they remit part of their earnings back home- either for family expenses or as savings- which in turn helps the national economy.

There are no real methods by which a brain-drain or manpower exodus can be stopped. India & China have both faced similar situations but managed to respond well by creating a safe and secure environment for foreign investment in a majority of sectors.

The Philippines however is far too away from creating such an environment since the country is riddled with problems. Firstly, the Philippines features prominently on the UN list of world’s most (natural) disaster prone country. Second comes the issue of homegrown terrorism. Thirdly, the reluctance of banks and financial institutions to take risks and invest in small scale industrial/ business projects that can generate employment opportunities.

A majority of Filipinos are also charmed by the foreign dream or the American Dream, to be more precise and are willing to take a plunge without realizing that life abroad can be as difficult- financially, mentally and physically. Most Filipino movies and serials are based on stories of somebody poor striking it rich abroad- while in reality, that’s not the case. I’ve seen Filipinos in EU struggling to survive.

What can be done to stem the exodus? You can begin by creating a general awareness that life abroad is not what is widely imagined. You’ll need to highlight that a foreign dream can often turn a nightmare. Filipina women trying to eke an existence in a foreign land are susceptible to sexual harassment and exploitation while Filipino men end up in conditions similar to slavery, in some countries.

Secondly, TV and movies need to stop glamorizing life abroad.

Third: Create a strong small-scale industrial sector where banks finance an industry and generate employment.

Four: Develop tourism.

Next,

Comment on What would it take to stop the mass exodus of Filipinos to the first world? by hewyk

hewyk — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:03:16 +0000

1) Birth Control
2) Someone like Mahathir (not Marcos) to instil some discipline in the country’s leadership

Comment on What would it take to stop the mass exodus of Filipinos to the first world? by Otaku in Need

Otaku in Need — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:05:44 +0000

Forgive me but I don’t really have much knowledege to contribute to your report.

However I thnk dat aside from the government, we could also start with our local media/entertainment. Hav u ever noticed that every local telenovela we see promotes this so called Exodus?

Example, one common scenario I keep seeing in Philippine drama is a poor girl/guy who’s studying Nursing to get abroad, or someone of a higher profession quits his/her job just to work at a lot less respectable occupation in a foreign country. Know wat I’m sayin here?

There are also some situations in Philippine movies where we seem to be glorifying anybody (or anything) from a foreign country.

Example, there’s hardly any Philippine movie I’ve run across that doesn’t have someone boasting that he/she got something from Saudi or USA.

Pretty sad huh?

I know dat government has the bigger hand in handling the people, but it’s the media that’s feeding the minds and mentalities of this nation.

Comment on What would it take to stop the mass exodus of Filipinos to the first world? by fishball

fishball — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:49:01 +0000

Skilled workers, seasonal employees, trainees, working holiday-makers, transfers of staff within multinational companies, and other categories such as family unification, and students continue to seek better economic opportunities in 1st World countries for obvious reasons.

(Arrivals of Asian nationals, especially Chinese, Filipinos; East Europeans Russia and Ukraine top the list of immigration to OECD countries).

To have some kind of answer, one need to ask:

1. Is the Phillipines better positioned to offer better conditions (than China/India) to attract Significant Numbers of Foreign Investments?

2. How can the Phillipines eradicate its history of political unstability?

3. How many Filipino homegrown companies allocate 30% of earnings to R&D? (Producer countries with little/no R&D culture continue to rely on OECD countries)

Find, implement the solutions to alleviate the “hapless poor” and tackle the “thieving rich” problems and Filipinos may one day return home. This is a tall order but vital… an “Impossible Dream” for the Phillipines. “Impossible” in this case because there are Filipino problems that will be too sensitive to mention. I won’t.