Promoting entrepreneurship

After the graduation party, painful reality sets in: there are too many graduates and too few jobs. Last year the country posted its highest unemployment rate in a decade, with nearly 74,000 people losing their jobs, according to the Department of Labor and Employment. Asia is recovering from a three-year-old economic crisis, but the pace of recovery in this country is not fast enough to absorb the available manpower. This summer an additional 373,399 graduates joined the country's work force. Many of them will find themselves unemployed or underemployed. A number of them will end up doing menial jobs abroad.

The government is trying to create more jobs, through pump-priming development projects and the attraction of more investments. Too much pump-priming, however, could make the deficit unmanageable. And attracting investments requires the right environment for business: peace and order, investor-friendly economic policies, adequate infrastructure, political stability, industrial peace. In many aspects, the Philippines is again being left behind by its neighbors. Fresh graduates, the unemployed and the underemployed must brace themselves for tough times ahead.

As the government moves to attract investments, it can promote entrepreneurship. In Thailand, many people who lost their jobs at the start of the crisis in 1997 set up their own businesses. Now Thailand is bouncing back -- faster than the Philippines, if the foreign exchange rate were used as a gauge. Even if small, home-based enterprises may not generate revenues for the government, they boost the economy and contribute to development especially in rural areas. Malacañang reported yesterday that there's a thriving underground economy with assets estimated at P132 billion. Entrepreneurship can be given a boost by government through more credit facilities as well as assistance in training, research and technology. Entrepreneurs also need help in marketing and product development.

The Philippines could eventually overtake its neighbors in attracting investments. Until enough jobs are created, however, the government must help provide alternatives to the unemployed.