IN some ways similar to the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca or perhaps the Traslacion for the Feast of the Black Nazarene, Filipino economists and banks individually and/or collectively brief the nation on what is needed to overcome the challenges faced by foreign companies wanting to do business here.
Another foreign investor concern I am told is that investors are looking at the Philippines’ “human capital” when scouting areas for investment and development. Human capital in a broad sense is “a collection of all the knowledge, skills, abilities, experience, intelligence, training, and competences possessed individually and collectively that can be productively utilized to create wealth.”
In the World Bank’s own words, the HCI attempts to quantify and qualify what a country is doing in health care and education to keep its current and—this is the key—future workforce productive. It is a long-range development tool not a critical part of the “Where should we build our overseas factory?” analysis today.
The economists are 100 percent correct about “Investors also face the challenge of tedious government processes at the national and local levels. Even just getting permits from LGUs to put up a factory or telco towers is really taking so long.”