MVP is Sports Czar, Philippines should reform or Vietnam will surpass us

If you’re a competitive person, that stays with you. You don’t stop. You always look over your shoulder. — Magic Johnson

I am no stranger to healthy competition — working hard and playing hard.  — Richard Branson

The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.  — Rupert Murdoch

Manuel “Manny” V. Pangilinan or MVP is not just the Telecom King (with PLDT/Smart after taking over from Tony Boy Cojuangco years ago) or the new Electric Power King (after taking over Meralco last year from the Lopez clan), MVP is now also the undisputed Sports Czar of the Philippines in terms of biggest donations to sports development from the many companies he controls.

I believe sports development is important for any society, because it promotes the spirit of excellence and a sense of competitiveness. Sports promote positive moral values like teamwork, hard work, discipline and sportsmanship. Look at China’s economic miracle and sports ethic.

When this writer checked his facts with Philippine STAR sports columnist Bill Velasco, the latter said that in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) alone, MVP already has Meralco, Talk ’N Text and he is part owner of Burger King, which has a PBA team also. He said that maintaining a PBA team costs P200 million to P300 million a year.

Few people know that during the March 11 earthquake in Japan, MVP was there for business meetings and to support the hugely popular Azkals football team in its practice sessions there. When asked how he felt during the quake, MVP replied, “Earthshaking!” MVP has — through Smart Communications — donated a whopping P80 million to help the Azkals team and football, while Air 21 boss Bert Lina has donated another P21 million.

Manny Pangilinan’s MVP Sports Foundation will support mainly eight sports: basketball, boxing, cycling, tae kwon do, badminton, tennis, running and football. MVP’s favorite sport is badminton and he once invited me to play with him, but I told him I needed to practice more because I knew he was an excellent player who has been at it since his Hong Kong investment-banker years.

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Congratulations to Philippine Airlines (PAL) led by chairman Lucio C. Tan for recently celebrating its 70th anniversary at Resorts World with so many well-wishers from the business community, government and other sectors. The 77-year-old Tan looked healthy and robust, because he leads a healthy lifestyle that includes regular swimming and nonstop walking.

Is it true that Tan’s Philippine National Bank will finally merge with his Allied Bank in a few months, creating what will be the country’s fourth largest bank next to BDO, Metrobank and the Bank of the Philippine Islands? Can PNB surpass its top three rivals?

At the PAL celebration, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said he supports the joint foreign chambers’ call for pro-business reforms outlined in their eye-opening Arangkada Philippines book, which we discussed in this column last week. He told us he is optimistic that despite the sad human tragedies of the recent Japan quake, this calamity might possibly become a reason for Japan’s much-awaited economic recovery if it undertakes a massive reconstruction program. His advice to entrepreneurs? “Be conservative, continue to invest in your own businesses that you know well, have faith in the future, wait for opportunities.”

More filipinos watch movies; why are there fewer local films?

Thanks to the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and columnist Ronald Constantino for inviting us to the launching of the 2011 Metro Manila Film Festival at a festive dinner held on the roof-deck floor of ex-President Joseph Estrada’s Emar Suites condominium at 409 Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong City. The ex-president has called his condo project Emar to honor his parents Emilio and Mary Ejercito by combining their first names.

I urge local producers to start shooting their MMFF entries so we can have truly good-quality flicks in contention and so that the annual Christmas project can far exceed the half-billion-peso revenues of the 2010 MMFF. Invest in good scripts, better technical quality and aim beyond the Philippine market by exporting Filipino movies the way South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Thailand and others are doing.

Instead of investing in condos, I suggest Erap invest in world-class moviemaking! Learn from such entertaining Hollywood films as Red Riding Hood, The Adjustment Bureau and Never Say Never (on the inspiring life of hardworking singer Justin Bieber) now in local theaters.  

The domestic Philippine market is still growing and quite huge but tragically, local movie producers are becoming fewer. Apart from lobbying to take out formerly exorbitant taxes, Filipino movie producers should dare to innovate or perish.

I also urge the government to intervene in saving the local movie industry with financial incentives and outright support by following our Asian neighbors like South Korea, because films can promote tourism, culture, and have immense export potential, too.

Based on my research, total Philippine movie sales in 2010 were P6.2 billion, a hefty increase from the P5.4 billion in 2009. How come we have fewer Filipino movies produced every year? Innovation and global competitiveness are needed in the local film industry!

Letter To P-Noy

Dear President Noynoy Aquino and other leaders of the Philippines:

While you and most of our mass media have been transfixed with sincere but still stop-gap government measures to aid distressed overseas Filipino workers in crises areas of the world like Japan, Libya, Bahrain and other places, our neighbors in Asia, like less-developed Vietnam led by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, are decisively moving ahead with breathtaking speed in terms of economic reforms and modernization.

We have already economically lost ground to our ASEAN neighbors Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and even Indonesia; now Vietnam will soon overtake us if we do not structurally reform fast and become more attractive to international and local investors.

Right now, the communist government of Vietnam is pouring billions of dollars into building ports for the world’s largest container ships that will accelerate their amazing economic growth, boost capitalistic activities and encourage more investors. Foreign investors have also been invited to participate in this huge ports modernization program.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s goal is to invest as much as 440 trillion dong this decade to modernize and expand Vietnam’s deep-water seaports for more international trade. The plan is for the ports to handle goods from 172.1 million metric tons in 2009 to between 900 million and 1.1 billion metric tons by 2020. Wow!

Due to fast economic growth and the massive influx of foreign investments, cargo volumes handled by Vietnamese seaports have increased more than four times from 1999 to 2009.

This Vietnamese government investment can catapult the port complex near Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) into the ranks of the world’s top 15 biggest seaports within a decade. The world’s top multinational giants, from Nokia of Finland to Intel Corp. of the USA, are shifting production to Vietnam, lured by cheaper labor, no strikes, pro-investor laws, political stability and deep seaports for huge container vessels that sail to the US, Europe and Asia.

The communist regime in Vietnam keeps encouraging capitalists to expand factories and they are aiming to increase shipping volume more than 400 percent this decade. Our neighbor Vietnam has seen its exports grow so fast that they now make up about 75 percent of that country’s gross domestic product! Vietnamese wages are lower than ours, as well as their power rates.

Our leaders should study Vietnam’s economic targets like narrowing the budget deficit to less than five percent of the GDP from a goal of about six percent in 2010, and aim for economic growth of at least seven percent per year over the next decade in order to truly overcome poverty.

We in the Philippines should target nothing less than seven or eight percent annual economic growth if we don’t want to be overtaken by Vietnam!

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