PGMA's Speech during the Young Presidents' Organization Asia-Pacific Conference

PGMA's Speech during the Young Presidents' Organization Asia-Pacific Conference

Riza Hall, Malacañang (01 December 2005)

Mr. Philip Ng, conference chairman; my Cabinet members who are from YPO. I think we have here Bayani Fernando, Lito Camacho and Vince Perez; ladies and gentlemen of the YPO, welcome once again to YPO in the Philippines. Oh, Jesli, you're also YPO? One of our top congressmen, the author of our fiscal reforms, Congressman Jesli Lapus.

I say once again to the YPO because I hosted over the past several years YPO Philippines, YPO U.S.A. but now it's YPO from the world over, so I'm triply honored to welcome you here tonight to Malacañang.

And as you can see, I take pride that I count among my cabinet roster the three YPO members who are here today and two others and not just my Cabinet but my key political allies like Congressman Lapus. So, I'm very proud to have YPO in our midst not only in tonight's event but in the life of our governance. And I thank YPO for producing such great young presidents.

Your visit is very welcome at this time. It comes on a time when the Philippines is on the verge of economic take off: the taming of our budget deficit as I said earlier brought about by a very difficult -- right, Jesli? -- but successful fiscal reform; our surging peso now they say the darling currency of Asia; our robust stock exchange which is considered by everyone playing the stocks as a buy; our all-time high foreign reserves. All of these are the handiwork of a hardworking and courageous people and the leaders that we have here in this room tonight.

Our growth sectors are our human skills-intensive service sectors and I think you're being exposed to them in this visit like ICT and tourism and the ornate export crafts like high-end furniture and jewelry. Take for instance ICT. The hefty increase in investments in our mobile telephones, call centers and business process outsourcing industries -- whose leaders I understand you're going to meet in the course of your visit -- have created just in the last four years a hundred thousand new high-wage jobs in ICT.

As for tourism, I'm glad to hear that some of you have visited El Nido, and I have heard that some of you have said that that should be listed among the 1,000 places you've got to visit before you die. But you want to know everything about a country that you visit, so I'm also glad that you have the opportunity to visit Corregidor tomorrow, so you will learn about some of our history. But indeed, El Nido was just a sample of the Philippines' natural resources and friendly people. Indeed, you can find in the Philippines some of the best dive spots in the world.

So I invite you not just to dive but to participate in our economic take-off by investing in the Philippines. You won't have difficulty finding partners because you have the YPOs of the Philippines here with you tonight.

So, to all of you, bon a petit!

Enjoy the evening. Enjoy the Philippines.

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat.

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