Griefs in the details

Mr. Boo Chanco’s column in today’s STAR (October 14th) confirms our impression that the Country is really in bad shape economically. The World Bank incontrovertible 2017 data trace how bad we have managed the economy for the last 5 decades compared to the other Asian countries. I will add to the “griefs in the details” as Mr. Chanco aptly laments, by citing the 2017 Asian Productivity Databook of 2019 (page 44) that compare 34 countries, mostly Asian, on Labor Productivity. 

Singapore is on top of the productivity heap in 2017 with $142,300 GDP Per Worker. The Philippines is located at 22nd spot from the top with $20,600. China is at 18th from the top with $26,200. The foregoing data can best be appreciated if we compare their comparative growth over 47 years since 1970:

Reading in full the World Bank’s APO reports will show our economic planners where to look to find the real problem. Surely, our population growth is one of them. But it should not end there when we consider China, which was classified as underdeveloped in 1970 with burgeoning labor force, could grow in productivity by 54% per worker and Singapore, which was already a first world economy 47 years ago without mineral and natural resources like ours, can still grow in productivity per worker higher than ours. And what compounds our problem is the reality that of the firms registered in the Country totaling 915,726 in 2016 (PSA LABSTAT), 80%, according to the World Bank, are small and employ less than 20 workers; the remaining 20% are competitive in the world market largely because of technological and capital infusion from foreign investments. How can we make these small companies grow and be more productive? That’s should be the challenge of the moment to the economic planners and to Congress. – M. K. Tan, Filinvest 1, Q.C.