PH ‘needs to prepare workers’ for Asean integration

“The country’s great asset is the people. The concern now is how to leverage the talented and wonderful character of our people, how to build them up to add value.” she said.

Asean envisions an Asean Economic Community with these key characteristics: a single market and distribution base, a highly competitive economic region with equitable economic development and full integration into the global economy.

Ho was one of the speakers during the 2nd National Business Conference of Independent Business Clubs and Chambers held at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu.

Aside from trade in goods, Ho said the country is also in a better position to grow further its trade in services, given that it is “large and still growing.”

“The Philippines has captured a significant share of the IT services market. It also continues to pose growth in demand for contractual services such as nurses and seafarers,” Ho said.

Contribution

Ho said that in the last three years, the services sector’s contribution to the overall gross domestic product (GDP) went up to 66 percent. Output share in 1980 was at 36.1 percent but it now captures 55 percent. Its employment share on the same year was at 32.8 percent but now accounts for 52 percent.

“Trade in services is but one of the many areas that give us a great future,” Ho said.

For his part, Asian Development Bank (ADB) senior country economist Norio Usui recommends the Philippines should be “walking in two legs” in manufacturing and modern services to “join the growth club in the region and translate the growth to inclusive one.”

Usui said it is not enough that the country should not depend on the services sector as this does not totally address the unemployment rate in the country. He said 70 percent of the labor force is not fully-utilized.

According to Usui, BPOs create jobs but its impact is limited given the scale of its workforce and its bias toward educated labor.

“Who can get jobs in call centers? High school or college graduates the least. BPO limits employment to some specified segments in the workforce they don’t cater the wider segment that’s why we need the manufacturing,” Usui said.

In terms of growing the agriculture sector, ADB’s advisor for Agriculture, Food Security and Rural Development Bank Lourdes Adriano said the country needs a new breed of farmers who are both science and technology-savvy.

She said information and communications technology (ICT) plays a major role in growing agriculture and agribusiness, given that the country is faced with a robust demand but weak food supply.

“How are we going to feed the estimate 155 million in population by 2050?” Adriano said.

Problem

She said the movement of rural people to urban areas will also contribute to the pressing problem of the industry, on top of other factors like the lack of investment for the sector.

It is estimated that by 2050 some 35 percent of people living in rural areas will have to feed the 65 percent of people living urban areas all considered as net buyers.

Adriano said the country has to reinvest in farming and bank on innovation and technology to grow the industry. She said the country should also consider the innovations adopted by other neighboring countries like the rooftop farming on buildings in urban areas to catch-up the opportunities in agriculture.

Turning Filipinos into ambassadors of the country is also another way of tapping the country’s workforce into growing tourism.

In his presentation, Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu president Johannes Hauri said the government and tourism players must inspire people to serve as host, as “people of the destination is the symbol of the place’s DNA.”

Sourced: sunstar