Revisiting old dreams

One of my constant frustrations is seeing ourselves dream the same dreams we already had three decades ago but somehow failed to achieve. We had grand visions back then, and very good plans for pursuing them. But as it is said time and time again, we have no shortage of good plans and good laws, but we keep falling flat in their implementation.

Back in the mid-1990s, the Ramos administration defined “polevaulting strategies” that drew on known and potential strengths of the Philippine economy, which could define our niches in the global economic arena and catapult us to rapid economic growth. These included aspiring to be Asia’s Medical Center, Shopping Mecca, Entertainment Capital, Knowledge Center, Energy Hub, and more. As most of these involved services, the strategy was supposed to allow us to “polevault” over the industrialization stage of the textbook economic development story, into the higher stage of a services-dominated economy. In the process, we could polevault over our neighbors as well.

Unfortunately, the destabilizing Asian financial crisis shifted us away from Ramos’ aggressive fighting mode to a struggling survival and stabilization mode, and the polevaulting strategies fell by the wayside under his successors. Still, 30 years hence, much of our inherent strengths for these polevaulting strategies remain with us, and we can validly keep dreaming those same dreams we had then.

Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia may have already had a head start on it, but being a Medical Center for Asia remains a real prospect, given the global excellence Filipino medical practitioners are known for—physicians, nurses, or medical technologists alike. What we need more of are investments in world-class hospitals. To date, we only have five hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission International, against Vietnam’s 7, Malaysia’s 17, Indonesia’s 23, and Thailand’s 61. We must also define our target niche, in the same way that Thailand capitalizes on cosmetic surgery, sex change, and stem cell therapy; Malaysia on cardiac surgery; Singapore on cancer, neurosurgery, and liver transplants; and Vietnam on in vitro fertilization and kidney transplants.

To be Asia’s Shopping Mecca was among the motivations for Congress in the 1990s to pass the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, paving the way for modern retail systems and establishments to be set up here. Trade liberalization had also lowered the cost of imported consumer goods for domestic and foreign shoppers alike, just when Hong Kong and Singapore were losing their preeminence as prime Asian shopping destinations. Topping it all are the legendary shopping malls that the Philippines has become known for globally, even as shopping malls are increasingly being abandoned in the West. We can still do it.

Our inherent advantage in becoming Asia’s Entertainment Capital needs a little further elaboration. I’ve written recently about our “Broadway of Asia” dream and our country’s rich artistic talent pool on which to build it. Again, what we need are investments in the needed infrastructure to achieve this goal and the right government support to project our creative sector worldwide and pursue a national branding effort as a vehicle for it.

Similarly, the Philippines as Knowledge Center, both in terms of higher education and of digital information and communication technology (ICT), is a dream within reach. We had, after all, been the region’s education center before, having been the training ground for many of the region’s leading scientists, especially in agriculture. And the quality of Filipino “peopleware” has merited the respect of the global ICT community that Filipinos have in fact been prominent in. Meanwhile, a recent Reuters article sees the Philippines leapfrogging Vietnam as the largest renewable energy producer in Southeast Asia, as our aggressive project development pipeline is set to yield a 15-fold increase in our combined solar and wind power by 2030.

There is so much our economy can achieve by just building on our strengths and seizing the opportunities. It’s time to brush the dust off those old Ramos polevaulting strategies and get back on the playing field.

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