PGMA's
DEPARTURE STATEMENT |
| I embark
for Hanoi carrying the banner of Philippine excellence and growing prestige in the world. With the Philippines at the helm of ASEAN, I shall aggressively push for closer economic and security cooperation in the larger Asia Pacific basin. The RP-US strategic alliance to fight terror and poverty will be on top of my talks with President Bush in line with the larger APEC agenda of human security and economic cooperation. I aim to make the Philippines a key player in the emerging economic and security synergies of the region, considering our strategic location in the Pacific rim and the presence of millions of overseas Filipinos whose presence is felt in building and bridging nations across the Pacific. Growing political and economic stability is forming a strong wind to push the Philippines forward in the world. |
PGMA's
SPEECH DURING A MEETING WITH THE FILIPINO COMMUNITY IN VIETNAM |
| Maraming
salamat, Secretary Bert Romulo, ang ating Secretary of Foreign Affairs na nung huling
narito ako noong 2003, siya ang ating Executive Secretary noon. Noon pag-nagbabiyahe ako
parati naiiwan siya. So sabi niya siya ay domestic helper noon. Pero nung naging Secretary
of Foreign Affairs siya pagkatapos ng 2004 elections parati nang kasama ko sa mga biyahe
kaya siya raw ay OFW na rin. Gusto ko rin batiin si Ambassador Berenguel na ilang beses ko nang nakita sa iba't-ibang assignment. At salamat at bagamat maliit ang Philippine community dito gaya nang sabi niya, ito ay mas malaki keysa yung dating assignment niya doon sa Eastern Europe. At papakilala ko yung mga kasapi ng aking congressional delegation. Nakita n'yo kami ay all-women group. kasi pagkatapos ng APEC, ang susunod na international summit doon naman sa Cebu, sa Mandaue City, yung East Asian Summit. At ang host congresswoman ng East Asian Summit sa Mandaue City ay si Congresswoman Neri Soon-Ruiz. Mabuti kasama siya para makita niya kung ano pa ang mga nagagawa ng Hanoi na pwede pang magawa ng Mandaue City. Tapos katabi niya dito sa dulo, ang congresswoman ng Bulacan. Alam n'yo doon sa Bulacan nung last term, may dalawang congressman ang pangalan Willy, kaya tawag nila ka-Willy-Willy. Tapos noon pagsabi naman nila kay Lorna Silverio, kanais-nais daw. si Congresswoman Lorna Silverio. Galing namin sa Mindoro Occidental, si Congresswoman Girlie Villarosa. At yung aking Cabalen, congresswoman from Pampanga, si Congresswoman Anna York Bondoc-Sagun. All-women kami na mga politicians pero yung ating mga Cabinet member naman ay lalaki: si Secretary Bert Romulo; ang ating Trade secretary, si Peter Favila; at saka ang ating Press secretary, si Toting Bunye. Kasama na rin natin dahil siya ang namumuno ng APEC Anti-Terrorism Task Force kaya hindi ba n'yo nahahalata walang terrorism attack sa pacific ream itong mga nakaraang taon? Meron tayong bragging rights dahil sa magandang trabaho ni General Benjie Defensor. Sa inyong mga kababayan dito, salamat at naghintay kayo, nahuli yung aking eroplano. Magandang gabi sa inyong lahat at narito na naman tayo kasi tayo ang magkasama nung 2003 merong kulang sa inyo. Kasi noong araw bahagi ng Philippine community dito yung Spanish Ambassador to Vietnam, kasi Filipino yung asawa niya, nandito siya noon. Pagkatapos ng ilang buwan naging ambassador siya to the Philippines, si Ambassador Sagaz. Kumusta raw sa inyong lahat. At sabi nga ni Ambassador Berenguel, alam naman n'yo lahat kung bakit tayo nandito ngayon, yung summit ng APEC na gaganapin bukas hanggang Linggo. At 21 countries... Ah, 21 economies, economies hindi necessarily countries kasi meron diyang hong kong kasama doon, kasama doon yung Taipei. So economies ang tawag doon. Napakalaking grupo ito, binubuo ng mga ekonomiyang pumapalibot sa Pacific ocean, yung tinatawag na Pacific ream. So nariyan ang ating mga kapit-bansa sa Timog Silangang Asya: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, at siyempre malakas ang ating relasyon dito sa loob ng ASEAN. Nariyan din yung ating mga economic partners sa Hilagang Asya: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea. Doon din sa Oceania: Australia, New Zealand. Ganun din sa Europa na bahaging Asya rin yung Russia. Karamihan sa kanila ay mga dialogue partners ng ASEAN o di kaya naman ay kasama natin sa East Asia Summit. Sila-sila rin yung pupunta, magbibisita kay Neri Soon-Ruiz sa isang... Mga two weeks, three weeks from now. Sa Western Pacific naman nariyan ang Papua New Guinea, isang kapwa nating archipelago. Sa kabilang panig namn ng Pacific, nariyan ang Hilagang Amerika, binubuo ng Estados Unidos at Canada, two of our strongest trade and development partners. Kasama rin natin sa APEC ang tatlong ekonomiya sa gitna at Timog Amerika: ang Mexico, Chile at Peru, with whom we share a lot historically and culturally because we were all former colonies of Spain. Kaya napakahalaga para sa Pilipinas ang maging bahagi ng APEC. Sana nga ay nai-schedule itong pagkikita natin pagkatapos ng summit para maikuwento ko sa inyo kung anu-anong mga napag-usapan. Kanya lamang ito ang pinaka-convenient mutually sa ating dalawa -- kayo at ako -- ganunpaman, mahalaga na nagkakaroon tayo ng pagkakataong magkita-kita muli at makipagbalitaan. Gaya nga nang sabi ni Ambassador at nung nalaman ko nga nung huling nagkita tayo, maliit lamang ang Filipino community dito sa vietnam, lalo na kung ikumpara natin sa ibang mga lugar tulad ng Singapore na bibisitahin ko pagkatapos nito, o tulad nung Hongkong, yung assignment ni Ambassador bago siya pumunta sa Eastern Europe. But I saw that the last time, I see it again now, your influence and impact on your host country far outweighs your number. Kaya congratulations sa inyong lahat! Ilan kayo rito? Humigit-kumulang isang libo dito sa Vietnam. But most of you, as Ambassador said, and as I saw the last time, are professionals or skilled workers, including accountants, engineers, teachers, managers. Napakaganda ng kalagayan ninyo dito at napakataas ang tingin sa inyo ng mga Vietnamese. In other words, hindi lang national ang inyong contribution, kundi regional and even global. Salamat sa tulong ninyo sa Pilipinas. Hindi lamang yung mga pinapadala n'yong remmitances kundi na rin meron sa inyong tumulong sa ating mga kababayang nasalanta ng landslide sa Leyte noong Marso. At salamat din sa dollars na ibinigay nina Mr. Galang at Mr. Danganan kanina na pakikinabangan ng ating mga mag-aaral na Pilipino sa pamamagitan ng mga silid-aralan na maipapatayo natin gamit itong perang ito. Maraming salamat sa inyo. Ibinigay ko na kay Secretary Romulo yung 5,500 dollars in cash, kasi makapal eh. Sabi ko Bert kung pwede ibigay mo na kay Secretart Jesli Lapus para maitayo niya yung mga paaralan. Salamat naman na nanonood pala kayo, napapanood pala ninyo yung NBN-4. So hindi na kayo masyadong homesick. At gusto kong idagdag na balita, noon talagang nahihirapan tayo dahil kulang ang silid-aralan. Pero ngayon dahil malakas ang ating piso at dahil sa ating economic reform bumaba ang interest na binabayad natin sa ibang bansa, naka-save tayo ng 22 billion pesos next year in interest payment. At doon sa savings doon, 16 billion pesos ay ilalagay natin sa pandagdag budget sa ating mga silid-aralan. Twenty two yon eh. Sixteen ang ilalagay sa pandagdag para sa edukasyon, dadagdagan rin natin yung health ng five billion, at dadagdagan natin ang social welfare ng one billion kaya doon pupunta yung ating 22 billion pesos in interest savings. Dapat naman hindi kasi tayo maiwan ng ibang mga karatig-bansa. Ang ating growth rate, I'm very proud to say in our administration, average growth rate in the six years... No, five years of my administration is the highest average growth rate of any administration since my father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal. At ang ating per capita income ngayon ay 1,400 dollars, kaya middle-income economy na tayo. Kahit... Ganunpaman, kahit na mas mataas ang ating per capita income keysa sa Vietnam -- nandito kayo, testigo kayo -- ang vietnam mabilis ang pag-angat. Mahigit tatlong dekada pa lang ang nakaraan mula nang matapos ang Vietnam war na tumagal halos tatlong dekada rin. But in such a short time, they managed to rebuild their country. At ano ang dahilan? Maraming mga analysts ang nagsasabi, patunay ito sa disiplina ng mga Vietnamese. Sila nga ang sinasabing the next China. Ano ang sikreto ng China? Yon din, yung kanilang disiplina. Marahil, sa pagkakataong ito, subukan naman nating mga Pilipino na matuto mula sa halimbawa ng mga Vietnamese at Chinese sa kanilang disiplina para makamit ang pag-unlad ng ating bansa. Sa mabilis na pag-unlad ng Vietnam marami rin tayong makikitang pagkakataon para lalo ring mapabilis ang pag-unlad sa Pilipinas patungo sa inaasam nating matatag or malakas na republika. Maraming malalaking oportunidad ang mabilis na paglago ng ekonomiya ng vietnam para sa Pilipinas, and you know this. I'm sure as Filipinos, you are proud to find such familiar names as San Miguel, Jollibee, Robina and Oishi here in Vietnam. At talagang nakikita natin lumiliit ng lumiliit ang mundo. Narito tayo sa hanoi dala-dala ang watawat ng kagalingan ng Pilipinas at lumalaking prestihiyo natin sa mundo. Ngayon itong taon, ang Pilipinas ang namumuno or chairman ng ASEAN, kaya gaganapin yung summit sa ASEAN. At dahil tayo ang chairman ng ASEAN, masigasig nating tinutulak ang higit na malapit na kooperasyon sa ekonomiya at seguridad na higit na malaking rehiyon ng Asya Pacific. Ito ay mas malaking rehiyon keysa ASEAN, itong APEC. Pito sa ASEAN countries ay bahagi ng APEC at saka may mga malalaking bansa gaya ng America, yung South America, Central America, na hindi bahagi ng ASEAN pero bahagi ng APEC. Yung East Asia Summit naman yung India kasama pero wala sa APEC, at meron tayong tatlong ASEAN countries na, as I said, hindi kasama ng APEC. Pero malaki ang overlap ng dalawang grupo. At dahil sa overlap ng dalawang grupo, talagang madalas nagkikita-kita ang mga lider nitong mga ekonomiya. Bukas mangingibabaw sa ating pag-uusap kay Pangulong Bush ang pangmatagalang pagkabalikat ng Pilipinas at Amerika upang labanan ang terorismo at ang kahirapan na kalinya ng higit na malaking agenda ng APEC na seguridad ng tao or human security at kooperasyon sa ekonomiya. At gaya nang sabi ko Pilipinas ang Chairman or Head ng Anti-Terrorism Task Force ng APEC. Layunin natin maging masusing kasapi ng lumilitaw na pangrehiyong synergy sa ekonomiya at seguridad dahil sa ating mga stratehiyang lokasyon sa pacific at presensiya ng milyung-milyong Pilipino sa ibayong-dagat, kasama na kayo, na ang inyong presensiya ay nararamdaman sa pagtayo at pagtulay ng mga bansa sa pacific. Humuhubog ng malakas na hangin ang lumalaking katatagan sa pulitika at ekonomiya upang tulakin ang Pilipinas na pasulong sa mundo. Last November, Secretary Romulo was here in Vietnam for a meeting of our joint commission for bilateral cooperation, kung papano ba magiging mas malapit ang ating dalawang bansa. It's only a sea that separates us, the South China Sea. One of the landmarks agreement in that meeting was that we would strive to raise our total two-way trade to two billion dollars by 2007 from a little more than one billion dollars by 2005. Well, tayo meron na tayong binibili sa kanila, yung bigas. Malaki ang pag-angkat natin ng bigas mula sa Vietnam. Ngayon, ano naman ang ibebenta natin sa kanila? Sana makatulong kayo, ating mga overseas Filipinos, na makabenta naman ng mga produkto natin dito. Kasi marami sa inyo businessmen, managers, accountants. Pwede kayong magdagdag ng inyong trabaho, maging traders din kayo, magdala ng produkto ng Pilipinas dito sa Vietnam. After all, trade between Vietnam and the Philippines is nothing new . Even three or four centuries ago, Philippine merchant ships docked in the old port town of Hoi An, to bring home high-grade silk, porcelain, mother-of-pearl and other precious cargo, some of which were then brought to the new world through the Manila-Ccapulco galleon trade. So nung panahong yon, yung mga gamit ng Vietnam patungo doon sa Amerika ay dumadaan sa Pilipinas. Tayo ang hub, hanggang ngayon gusto pa rin nating maging hub sa trade between the American continent and the Asian mainland continent. Isa pang haligi ng relasyon natin sa vietnam ang mga usaping pandagat. Isang magandang halimbawa ng pagtutulungan natin sa larangan na ito'y yung tinatawag na Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking kung saan kasama rin ang Tsina. Eto nung araw, noong 2003 nung nagpunta ako dito, kakagawa lang ng Oilipinas at Tsina itong agreement. What is this agreement? At first, it was an agreement between the Philippine National Oil Company and the China National Offshore Oil Company. At later on, the PetroVietnam joined to cooperate on data gathering and analysis in the South China Sea to assess the potential for petroleum development in the South China Sea. Noon, China at Pilipinas pa lang. At nung... Naalala n'yo nagpunta ako, nag-state visit ako dito sa Vietnam. Nung nagpunta ako dito sa Vietnam, nag-o-object ang Vietnam kung bakit raw nagkasunduan ang China at Pilipinas na mag-explore sa South China Sea eh meron din silang claim. So yung predecessor ni Ambassador Berenguel, naalala ninyo si Ambassador Vic Lecaros, ang inatas natin sa kanya, kumbinsihin mo ang Vietnam na sumama rin dito sa agreement na ito. Kaya tatlong bansa ang gumawa ng agreement, sabay-sabay tayong nagre-research sa South China Sea. Ngayon, natapos na yung research na yon. Ina-analyze na sa mga laboratoryo or sa kanilang mga computer. At sabi ni Secretary Romulo, ngayon at natapos na yung research mismo at ginagawa na yung desk work, dapat pumunta na tayo sa susunod na hakbang ng ating kooperasyon. At yon ang... Biro n'yo kung makahanap tayo ng langis. Actually, meron na tayong nahanap na langis off Palawan, doon sa Malampaya. Yung Malampaya Company, hindi Malampaya, Palawan. Ang pangalan ng project ay Malampaya. Meron na tayong oil na nahanap doon pero mas maraming oil ang mahahanap natin, mas aangat ang ating ekonomiya. And I hope, I really long for that day. I long for the day when going abroad for a job like what you do is an option and not the only choice for a hardworking Filipino worker. And our economic plans are designed to allow the Philippines to break out of the cycle of having our Filipinos go abroad because they have to, because there are not enough jobs in the Philippines. That's why we remain so stubbornly focused on the economy, and why we want our super regions to work. Ngayon, ano ba itong mga super region na ito? Well, we need to spread the wealth in the Philippines and keep the people working at home. So we're creating appealing employment opportunities by focusing on the development of priority sectors such as agri-business in North Luzon. So that's one super- region made up of Regions I, II, CAR and part of Region III. And then industry services and logistics in the urban beltway from Clark-Subic in the north through Metro Manila to Batangas port. So that's another super region made up of parts of Region III, parts of Region IV... No, Region IV, part of Region IV-A including the province of Congresswoman Villarosa and Metro Manila. And then tourism in Central Philippines, because more than half of the foreign tourists go to Central Philippines, made up of the Visayas, Palawan, Bicol and some islands of Region IV-B. So that's one super region as well. And then agri-business in Mindanao. And in another... In telecommunications technology and education for business process outsourcing in the cyber corridor which cuts along the length of the other super regions from Baguio through Metro Manila, to Cebu and to Davao. So, eto ang ginagawa natin para hindi nalulustay ang ating mga infrastructure investments. At bilang bunga nitong ginagawa natin pati na rin yung reporma sa buwis sana nababalitaan ninyo, maging sa media o sa inyong mga pamilya at kamag-anak sa Pilipinas na... Ukol sa paglago ng ating ekonomiya, ang pagtaas ng piso. About a year ago, our peso was 55 to 1. Now it is 50 to 1. Gayundin ang ating credit outlook, nung isang taon, negative. Ngayon, stable. Yung pagbaba ng ating budget deficit, about two years ago, it was 200 billion pesos. This year, it's 100 billion pesos. I was aiming to have a balance budget by 2010. But the way we're going, our economic managers, Peter Favila, are insisting na it will be 2008. At siyempre bunga lahat nito, or bunga ba or dahilan basta nag-i-interact lahat yung mga factors na yan, ang paglaki ng ating foreign currency reserves. At siyempre saan nanggagaling ang ating foreign currency reserves? Sure, may exports. Sure, may investments. Pero meron isang sikreto ng Pilipinas na hindi naman sikreto dahil alam ng buong mundo -- ang ating mga overseas Filipinos. Kaya ang laki, ang laki ng inyong kontribusyon sa ating bansa. Nagko-contribute kayo dito sa paglago ng Vietnam pero nagko-contribute din kayo sa paglago ng Pilipinas. At sana nga tuluy-tuloy ang inyong suporta sa ating minamahal na bansa para sa ganun, gaya nang sabi ko, it will just be a choice and not a necessity to work in another country like Vietnam. Sa inyong lahat, I'm so happy to see all of you. Hope to see you again soon whether here or in the Philippines. Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat. |
PGMA's
OPENING STATEMENT ON THE SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME OF THE 14th APEC
LEADERS MEETING IN HANOI, VIETNAM DURING AN INFORMAL INTERACTION WITH MEDIA |
| At the
APEC meetings were a success. Anytime that world leaders come together to discuss regional
and international problems, it's a positive. Clearly, the world is changing. And in no time has there ever been such a need for greater and economic security than now. APEC continues to make a contribution to peace, security and economic cooperation. Siguro kung tatanungin mo ano'ng mga kontribusyon ko? Mabuti siguro pag-usapan natin, ano yung mga outcome? Dalawa yung importanteng retreat ng APEC: yung isa tungkol sa ekonomiya, at yung isa tungkol sa seguridad. Tungkol sa ekonomiya, ang pinaka-importanteng tanong: papaano natin ipapabalik ang usapan ng Doha Round? At yung pinagkasundo ng lahat ng mga leader, everybody should give more than when the talks fell, especially U.S., Europe and the G-20. Ngayon sabi ko naman, kung gusto ng mga malalaking ekonomiya na sumama yung mga maliliit na ekonomiya, na kumbinsihin itong mga ito -- U.S., Europe, the big economies of the G-20 -- we should have a stake in making the Doha Round successful because many of our constituents don't have a clear view of the benefits of the Doha Round for them. Because in many of the developing countries that are still agricultural and industrial sectors that are not yet competitive. And so therefore, it's just convenient for them that the Doha Round is stalled. So if you want Doha Round to go on, they must have a stake in the resumption of the Doha Round. And the way to do that I said is for WTO and the multilaterals help these sectors become competitive so that they will have a stake. They might even be able to export more under a globalized trading regime. So, yon ang aking kontribusyon. Kasi lalo na sabi ko, ecotech... Because APEC is supposed to have three legs: the trade and investment liberalization; trade and investment facilitation; and ecotech (economic and technical cooperation) and... Improvement. And ecotech was born ten years ago in the Manila Summit. So it's ten years old. So we have... I mean, we also have a stake in making sure that ecotech has an important role to play in the APEC process not only in negotiating liberalization, facilitation but also economic and technical cooperation to make the developing countries competitive and therefore be able to convince their constituents that indeed there is a stake for everybody in making the Doha Round successful. Ngayon doon naman doon sa second retreat, tungkol naman sa seguridad, security. At yung isang pinaka-importanteng pinag-usapan doon yung North Korea at ano ang gagawin para yung North Korea ay tigil-tigilin na itong kanyang nuclearization. Yung isang malaking pinag-kasunduan doon ay yung ano... Yung support for the Security Council Resolution 1718. Now, that that... The Security Council Resolution has not yet been unanimously adopted by all the members of the U.N. so there is an advocacy for that. And the Philippines was one of those who expressed strong support for that Security Council Resolution. |
PGMA's
REMARKS DURING THE LUNCHEON HOSTED BY TEMASEK HOLDINGS |
| Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much for asking me to say a few words and thank you. And Madame Ho Ching, thank you for hosting this very delightful and I hope very fruitful luncheon. Well, as you all know, I just came from the APEC meetings and I was saying to Madame Ho Ching that Premier Lee Hsien Loong had many words of wisdom for us. But I would like to say in general that that meeting was very hopeful. Anytime that the world leaders get together to discuss global and regional problems, it's a positive. And I think that APEC has been a good process for bringing into focus Asia which is such an important and dynamic player in the world today. The Philippines hopes to become part of that dynamism, more than we have been in recent years. And that's the reason why I've come here to Singapore now because I think now we're ready to give you good news. I think because many of you have an interest in the Philippines, I think you will not disagree with me when I say that the Philippine economy has arrived and there's no looking back. The days of huge deficits, stagnation and poor economic growth are gone. We had a very hard fought first phase of our economic reforms, and that was raising the revenues that we needed to invest in infrastructure and in human development. But that hard fought war has been won and the results are in. Our deficit is under control and the country is on its way to a balance budget in 2008; the stock market is up; the peso is strong; investments are coming in; growth is robust; the poverty rate is down; the per capita income is up; new revenues can be invested in long overdue repairs in infrastructure, health care, education and job creation. And because we are spending in new revenues... In fact, I said, we're spending our new revenues in infrastructure, I announced recently in my State of the Nation Address that we have now a one trillion-peso public investment program. This investment program will be funded -- of course, the majority of it by our government revenues -- but because we have a comprehensive and consistent program of investment in infrastructure, we also have room for private sector investors who want to take on some of the more lucrative aspects of the infrastructure program. We're talking here about railways, seaports, roads, airports, energy, and so on. And so what we want to do therefore is to invite the business community of Singapore to look at these opportunities, first of all, in infrastructure. But noting the wide range of businesses under Temasek's portfolio, we would ask you to partner with us in developing major infrastructure projects to make our companies competitive, to lower electricity cost, to develop alternative sources of energy, to lower our dependence on imported fuel. We also want to see the benefits of these competitiveness raising efforts to benefit retail services like in tourism, I.C.T., B.P.O. services, banking and telecommunications. And I hope that you will look at these opportunities because they will be good for our country. We need them for our investments and for our competitiveness, but they are also in themselves very important areas for investment. I'd like to say something about our energy independence program because we are inviting investors in our energy independence program. Actually now, we are now around only about 30 percent dependent on imported oil. That's because we have been very aggressive in promoting alternative sources of energy like biofuel which has taken off. There's already a biofuel company that is listing in the stock exchange. And the same thing can be said of our solar energy, wind energy and geothermal energy. So we have a lot of these kinds of sources of energy and they are important in areas for investment as well. We're also firmly committed to attracting investors in our mining industry. We are probably the 5th mining power in the world as far as natural resources are concerned. But in regard to their having been extracted or processed, we are somewhat the new kid in town because it was only recently that the Supreme Court ruled that 100 percent investment in... Foreign investment in mining is in accordance with our constitution . So this a very big area for investments now. And we invite and we will approve mining projects that are ecologically responsible. Then there is the business process outsourcing sector. Five years ago when I had just assumed the presidency, there were only 2,000 workers in the B.P.O. industry. Today, there are 200,000 workers. That's a one hundred-fold increase in that industry in the last five years. And there's much more room for that because there's so much of a demand for B.P.O. services, and we are making sure that we can still continue to grow fast by training more and more of our young people in the english skills and the competency base skills that are required by the B.P.O. industry. We have been growing a hundred-fold in five years. It really means that we have already established ourselves in this industry. What we are doing now is to increase value-added. We are working on growing the value-added segment of this industry including accounting, legal, personnel and administrative services. And this year alone, this higher value B.P.O. is expected to grow by almost 40 percent. And this is really very exciting for our I.C.T. industry. I really thought that I should come here to Singapore to ask the Singapore business community to invest more in the Philippines. We have already been experiencing big surges in foreign investment in our country. Peter, October, gave us a 30 percent increase in investments, and we are very happy about that. And we'd like to have more of course because we would like to catch up with the rest of this very dynamic region. We're always striving to make our economy more competitive for both domestic and foreign investors. Recently, we had a National Competitiveness Summit. And we, together with the business sector, worked on and discussed how can we make our country more competitive as far as the business climate is concerned. And there were very, very concrete measures that were proposed by the business community. And we have formed a private sector-public sector task force to work on the resolutions made then. So Peter Favila heads it together with the member of the private sector. And it's a very, very small group so that they can work together and Bobby Romulo is also a member of that because he is my senior adviser on competitiveness. And part of the competitiveness move is to work on cutting red tape. Peter is also the head of our Anti-Red Tape Task Force. And we have drastically reduced the time associated with the bidding process, for instance, on government projects. But later on, peter can tell you other things if you are interested in things that we have done to cut down on red tape. And with red tape comes corruption. We have also made progress against corruption. For instance, under Gary's administration and started by Lito Camacho when he was still Secretary of Finance, we've been cleaning up Customs and as a result we have increased revenue collections. Isn't it right, Gary ? I've read in the papers that we are collecting more from the vat than we expected. So the increment of that would be a result of the clean up we've been doing in the Customs. We clean up in at least two ways: one is by the technology that will reduce opportunities for corruption; and then the other one is running after tax cheats and smugglers. We take this issue very seriously. So, I'm happy that the international market has responded. Since the reforms that I announced in the State of the Nation Address last July, and it is now November and the markets are still responding. So I think it means that the market sees that what we said in July we're actually carrying out. So we remain confident that we will be able to meet our target this year of 5.5 percent growth. That is what the World Bank says we will achieve. The World Bank has been praising what we've been doing so as the I.M.F., so have our credit rating agencies. And that's why we felt that this time it is right for us to come and tell the good news to the Singaporean business community. Now that we have done our reforms in revenue and we're well underway in our reforms and infrastructure, we can now work on the third phase which is truly to set our sights on becoming a first world country in 2020. Of course, Singapore is very much a first world country, the first of the ASEAN countries to be in the first world. We have a lot to learn from Singapore and I'm very happy about our conversation with Madame Ho Ching earlier, not only because I've now have an idea of what are the specific areas of investment that Temasek will be interested in, but because of the innovations and the decision-making process that Temasek goes through in doing its economic decisions something that we have a lot to learn about in our quest to become a first world nation by 2020. So. I'd like to thank you again for this opportunity to be able to speak before the captains of the business community. Madame Ho Ching and Mr. Lim, thank you so much for this opportunity. And I hope, indeed, that we will enhance our partnership in the months and years to come. Thank you. |
