The private sector is confident of the economy despite the depreciation of the peso and the rising inflation but is pushing for more investments in small businesses which have been fueling the economy.
“The Philippines still a good place to invest in,” said Teresita Sy-Coson, vice chair of SM Investments Corp. at the
Philippine Economic Briefing in Singapore yesterday.
Sy-Coson said private sector is “very confident about th(e) economic) team and the present administration.”
She cited the monetary policy and the financial policies are very stable.
“In spite of the inflation rate and as well as the depreciation (of the peso), we’re still very much okay and you don’t hear a lot of complaints on many areas in the private sector. So we’re confident that we’re all together toward a better economic future in the Philippines,” Sy-Coson added.
Sy-Coson encouraged more investments in micro, small and medium enterprises as part of the supply chain.
Sy-Coson said because of the lack of foreign direct investment, “the Philippines, the way I see it, has been made up of a lot of small and medium industry and especially the micro ones, and they are the ones which have been supplying the jobs among themselves. “
“This is where we like to bring more investments to the Philippines because we are about 100 million Filipinos. We don’t have that hunger, although we have a high percentage of poverty. We have been able to maintain that because of the micro businesses and that has sustained a lot of jobs… the owners are providing jobs themselves and that includes part of the agriculture,” Sy-Coson said.
Sy-Coson believes the Philippines will see a a faster rise to the middle class status and mass affluence as gleaned on SM Investments’ own operations in retail through its malls and banking where it offers microfinance and salary loans.
Sy-Coson said as a company which has been investing in the economic future of the Philippines for the past 60 years, SM Investments “ grows as the economy grows.
“So we are very focused on t the different areas that the government is working on.”
“If the economy does well, it will cascade down to more purchasing power. That will impact our businesses positively. There are a lot of things that one can do in the Philippines,” Sy-Coson said.
