Monday, February 21, 2005
Tools We Need to Go From Zero to Sixty
So we have established where we are economically and where we need to be a few years from now. The next thing on the block is pinpointing the tools, ideas we need for this trip from nothing to something! From zero to sixty... if we are to talk about a vehicle that is accelerating.
Now , we have two choices. Fix the old, rusty, rickety and sick provincial economy. This means a major overhaul. That is too big for us. At least for now. Or we simply get smart and BUILD from scratch our tiny little vehicle of an economy that is lean, mean, slick, sleek and will run a lot better than the big old one .
How do we do that? Okay, one very wise mentor said that when faced with a challenge, come up with a list of ten different ways to solve the problem. Meaning , we will look at ten different small but lean and mean economic TOOLS AND VEHICLES to bring us up to speed.
Here we go:
Idea 1. Manufacturing. Manufacture EXPORT QUALITY clothes on the island. Buy materials wholesale therefore cheaper. Sell finished products overseas, mainly the U.S. for some decent profit. A friend and I are importing brand name clothes from Pakistan . The clothes are manufactured in Pakistan under license by respective U.S. brand name companies like Gap, Echo, Abercrombie, etc. They come with all the right labels and a retail price tag in U.S. $. The mark up is unbelievable. Clothes bought from Pakistan for between $4.50 to $6.0 apiece are sold to wholesalers or retailers for between $30 to $50. This year the old garments import qouta to the U.S. expired. Until that changes, the market is more open for us to take advantage of.
Idea 2. Agriculture. Choose one or two crops that are not too susceptible to the damages of typhoons like root crops as garlic, ginger roots, potatoes, onions. These are EXPORTABLE products. All the bananas in the U.S. are mostly imported from the Americas. Bananas rot much faster than these products but they still make it nice and fresh to the U.S. markets. Most huge Asian food stores here sell imported food products from overseas. A lot of canned, frozen, dried, and fresh root crops like cassava, onod nin hopi, ginger, garlic, onions, ube, etc. Will you believe fresh flowers are exported to the U.S. as well? It is amazing.
Idea 3. Light Industry. Set up a small CANNING or DRY-PRESERVE factory. We could preserve or can a lot of things. From seafood to fruit juices, fruits, vegetables, dried fruits, even cooked meals. Some provinces in the Philippines export cooked 'laing' or 'pignatokan na hopi'!
Note: None of the above will require a lot of electricity and hopefully none will require refrigeration or freezing. This is very important. We do not have the means to do that ...yet. But above three ideas could be potential money earners.
Idea/Tool 4. Our own Customs Department on the Island. All three ideas above need to have a good market. We can produce for local consumption but we need to produce more for export to maximize profits. As we take in more income from our humble exports, our bank accounts grow . As our bank accounts grow, we expand our production. The existing import/export services on the island have to go through the biggest mess called Manila. Why? We can expedite many things by leap frogging that unnecessary mess. What does it take to get this EXTREMELY CRITICAL economic component in place? We need concrete steps, answers to this. I don't see why we can't have this service on the island.
Idea/Tool 5. Our own Immigrations Department on the Island. This will handle the influx of tourists and businessmen much faster than if they have to go through Mess City. Tourists to the Island will have the opportunity to see some Real Catandunganon Hospitality! We do not get that as we arrive at the Mess City International Airport where we first get a mouthful of foul air, then hassles from the airport services, rough and crazy taxi ride to the hotel.
Idea/Tool 6. Our own Small to Medium Enterprise (SME)/Chamber of Commerce Agency . This is the One Stop agency ran and managed by a combination of gungho, honest and business savvy local businessmen, highly motivated and trained citizens and the more transparent section of our local government.
These guys will provide the many details on how to SET UP, RUN, MANAGE all small to medium business ventures with one objective in mind. And that ONE OBJECTIVE is profitability, repeat business , more profit and eventual sustained upward financial success. They will guide and assist with small business loans. They will assist in management skills and training for profit. They will give us the inside tricks on exporting for profit. They will hook us up with banks and lenders. They will teach us how to maximize profits. They will be our liaison with the respective government agency on small to medium enterprise. Folks , this is where a HUGE NETWORK of super motivated VOLUNTEERS on the island and overseas comes in. From this network of volunteers will emerge a global initiative, a Global Teamwork if you may.... thus the birth of our young and humble Global Catandunganon's kickbutt, goal-oriented, no non-sense group.
Idea 7. A lean and mean 'Tourist Park'. Tourism money is the start of cash flow from overseas individuals and businesses. Long before we establish heavy industry on the island we need to look at money earners or cash flow sources that are now within our reach. Tourism and the cash flow it brings is not too far from our reach.
This is based on my observation of the many individual and isolated efforts from local and foreign investors that have built and set up 'tourist attractions' on the island. My opinion is that it has not caught a lot of attention yet although these are a good start. The big reason for a lack of repeat business on these resorts is the lack or absence of the basic, essential support facilities to bring about a true tourist haven atmosphere and CONVENIENCE to the visitors.
Example of a lean and mean Tourist Haven: I have written about this before but it is worth mentioning here. Catalina Island is our worthy model. The whole island is no bigger than Catanduanes, has a lot less potential tourist destinations than Catanduanes but at the present time enjoys millions of dollars in cash flow from tourists YEAR LONG.
The island business planners simply focused on ONE ideal spot on the island and built a tourist destination out of a small town of only 3200 residents and an area of no more than 3 square miles and created a tourist haven that is small and yet loaded with attractions, activities and fun. The little 'tourist park' or city has small but efficient hotels with nice clean air conditioned rooms, all kinds of restaurants and beer joints, a few grocery stores, gift shops, a theater. They offer boat rides, boat rentals, scuba diving lessons, skin diving, parasailing, fishing trips. The boat ride includes 'underwater' viewing windows where people see loads of fat and overfed coral fish. Fishing in this special area is off limits of course. Night time viewings are also offered. Most of these activities are done within a small area. Daytime bus trips are offered to tour the inland part of the island, visit scenic spots.
This little island gets visited by two cruise ships loaded with tourists twice a week in addition to the folks that come in ferry boats from mainland California. And of course by out of state and foreign visitors. Everything that the tourists need is inside this little 'tourist park'. All the support facilities and the fun things are right there.
This is very important.
Our early efforts at tourism are indeed noble. But they are not lean and mean. It is not efficient and it is not much fun. Not much fun because there are no choices of activities that will cater to different age groups. Not efficient in the sense that we probably do not offer hot showers or some with no air conditioning. Local restaurants that cater to foreign visitors are not there. We can not expect these folks to eat nothing but local food. These tourist destinations are scattered and far from each other so the support services can not be brought to them easily by future business establishments.
Solution : A 'Tourist Park' strategically situated close to a very nice beach and a support system which will cater to ALL the needs and conveniences of the various tourists from many cultures and age groups.
A real estate developer finds this nice spot by the beach , lay out the plan, sell the lots to prospective businesses. I mean this has to have the support of the provincial planners. A complete plan of what facilities and businesses will be built or allowed to be built should be in place .
Such Tourist Park will require a good amount of electrical power and perhaps natural gas for heating water. This is going to be a 'steep' demand for our limited services on the island.
Idea/Tool 8. Mini Hydro and More: I heard from the grapevine that our thinkers and planners on the island are toying with building a mini-hydro electric plant. Be nice if part of the output of this hydro plant will be set aside to support this Tourist Park. We do not want a Tourist Park where power blinks out when the air conditioners run or food are cold because microwave ovens are not nuking the meals on time or the brew are warm because the reefers are dead. Even a cold shower during the early morning is just as bad a turn off to any convenience-loving tourist. And yes ladies and gentlemen even us folks who can live without air conditioners , microwave ovens , refrigerators demand to have these goodies when we are on vacation somewhere. Why go on a trip and live in misery. We can do that by staying home!
Idea/Tool 9. Aquaculture. Aquaculture is actually part of agriculture. Aquaculture/agriculture formed the first vehicles of cash flow for economic giants like Taiwan, Japan and even China. They produced all kinds of grains like rice, corn etc. Agriculture byproducts as cereals, bread, flour, breakfast bars and hundreds more are all EXPORT items. So from agriculture and exporting these byproducts they built their money belts fatter. Soon light industry came in. Bigger exports followed. More money or income for all. Heavy industry followed. And the rest is history.
Aquaculture came alongside agriculture. Taiwan still holds the top position as the biggest exporter of frozen tilapia to the United States. This alone brings them millions of dollars a year.
Aquaculture is done inland, along the coastline.
Idea/Tool 10. An excellent and profitable Market. All these products need to get sold for decent profits. China is getting very very rich by flooding the world with their products. I find very few non- Chinese products in many stores. Almost everything is made in China. This does not mean that the Chinese got very smart all of a sudden and started producing all these products all by themselves. A lot of these products are being manufactured UNDER LICENSE BY all these multinational companies, mostly U.S. companies. When products are made overseas under license by a multinational company, production tricks and knowhow is passed down to the producing country. U.S. companies also make money by being able to manufacture things at a lower cost due to very cheap labor in China then the products are sold here cheaper.
This is the market that we are talking about. Your bag of onions when sold here will give you more money. Your locallly made but under license and brand named t-shirt will sell for more than ten times in this market. Now , that is how we can speed up our efforts at increasing the size of our bank accounts.
Idea/Tool 11. Our own international air and sea ports. Please note that I said come up with ten ideas. When one is fired up , one can go not a hundred but a hundred and fifty per cent . It's called going the extra mile! We have both the air and sea ports. Let us just make them into international ports and start doing business with the world at its present level. Why not?
I will be a happy citizen of the island to see the paperwork completed and the national government blesses our provincial Customs and Immigrations Departments. Then you and I will be even more happy to see the first real imports of even small things as sunkist orange and apples from as far away as the U.S. or a bicycle from China. And ladies and gentlemen, when we see the first few boxes of tshirts, handicrafts, food products leave our small and humble seaport , knowing that this small first items of export will mark the beginning of a kick-butt economy.......you and I and the whole citizenry will no longer be the same. These are just the beginning.
There goes eleven tools and ideas on how we can get the ball rolling and there are more. Impossible? Nonsense!!! We are surrounded by other Asian countries who are doing this day in and day out. We need to get up and go! We are left behind in the dust but there is nothing more exciting than the desire to catch up and then excel. It is doable. I kid you not!
Again this is not a one-man show. I dare you, you who is a big thinker. You who is sick and tired of mediocrity. You who share this dream to soar. Soar to great achievements. You who want to be counted. You who know in your heart that you could be a part of a great accomplishment. It is about time we start kicking butt. We can do it!
Now , we have two choices. Fix the old, rusty, rickety and sick provincial economy. This means a major overhaul. That is too big for us. At least for now. Or we simply get smart and BUILD from scratch our tiny little vehicle of an economy that is lean, mean, slick, sleek and will run a lot better than the big old one .
How do we do that? Okay, one very wise mentor said that when faced with a challenge, come up with a list of ten different ways to solve the problem. Meaning , we will look at ten different small but lean and mean economic TOOLS AND VEHICLES to bring us up to speed.
Here we go:
Idea 1. Manufacturing. Manufacture EXPORT QUALITY clothes on the island. Buy materials wholesale therefore cheaper. Sell finished products overseas, mainly the U.S. for some decent profit. A friend and I are importing brand name clothes from Pakistan . The clothes are manufactured in Pakistan under license by respective U.S. brand name companies like Gap, Echo, Abercrombie, etc. They come with all the right labels and a retail price tag in U.S. $. The mark up is unbelievable. Clothes bought from Pakistan for between $4.50 to $6.0 apiece are sold to wholesalers or retailers for between $30 to $50. This year the old garments import qouta to the U.S. expired. Until that changes, the market is more open for us to take advantage of.
Idea 2. Agriculture. Choose one or two crops that are not too susceptible to the damages of typhoons like root crops as garlic, ginger roots, potatoes, onions. These are EXPORTABLE products. All the bananas in the U.S. are mostly imported from the Americas. Bananas rot much faster than these products but they still make it nice and fresh to the U.S. markets. Most huge Asian food stores here sell imported food products from overseas. A lot of canned, frozen, dried, and fresh root crops like cassava, onod nin hopi, ginger, garlic, onions, ube, etc. Will you believe fresh flowers are exported to the U.S. as well? It is amazing.
Idea 3. Light Industry. Set up a small CANNING or DRY-PRESERVE factory. We could preserve or can a lot of things. From seafood to fruit juices, fruits, vegetables, dried fruits, even cooked meals. Some provinces in the Philippines export cooked 'laing' or 'pignatokan na hopi'!
Note: None of the above will require a lot of electricity and hopefully none will require refrigeration or freezing. This is very important. We do not have the means to do that ...yet. But above three ideas could be potential money earners.
Idea/Tool 4. Our own Customs Department on the Island. All three ideas above need to have a good market. We can produce for local consumption but we need to produce more for export to maximize profits. As we take in more income from our humble exports, our bank accounts grow . As our bank accounts grow, we expand our production. The existing import/export services on the island have to go through the biggest mess called Manila. Why? We can expedite many things by leap frogging that unnecessary mess. What does it take to get this EXTREMELY CRITICAL economic component in place? We need concrete steps, answers to this. I don't see why we can't have this service on the island.
Idea/Tool 5. Our own Immigrations Department on the Island. This will handle the influx of tourists and businessmen much faster than if they have to go through Mess City. Tourists to the Island will have the opportunity to see some Real Catandunganon Hospitality! We do not get that as we arrive at the Mess City International Airport where we first get a mouthful of foul air, then hassles from the airport services, rough and crazy taxi ride to the hotel.
Idea/Tool 6. Our own Small to Medium Enterprise (SME)/Chamber of Commerce Agency . This is the One Stop agency ran and managed by a combination of gungho, honest and business savvy local businessmen, highly motivated and trained citizens and the more transparent section of our local government.
These guys will provide the many details on how to SET UP, RUN, MANAGE all small to medium business ventures with one objective in mind. And that ONE OBJECTIVE is profitability, repeat business , more profit and eventual sustained upward financial success. They will guide and assist with small business loans. They will assist in management skills and training for profit. They will give us the inside tricks on exporting for profit. They will hook us up with banks and lenders. They will teach us how to maximize profits. They will be our liaison with the respective government agency on small to medium enterprise. Folks , this is where a HUGE NETWORK of super motivated VOLUNTEERS on the island and overseas comes in. From this network of volunteers will emerge a global initiative, a Global Teamwork if you may.... thus the birth of our young and humble Global Catandunganon's kickbutt, goal-oriented, no non-sense group.
Idea 7. A lean and mean 'Tourist Park'. Tourism money is the start of cash flow from overseas individuals and businesses. Long before we establish heavy industry on the island we need to look at money earners or cash flow sources that are now within our reach. Tourism and the cash flow it brings is not too far from our reach.
This is based on my observation of the many individual and isolated efforts from local and foreign investors that have built and set up 'tourist attractions' on the island. My opinion is that it has not caught a lot of attention yet although these are a good start. The big reason for a lack of repeat business on these resorts is the lack or absence of the basic, essential support facilities to bring about a true tourist haven atmosphere and CONVENIENCE to the visitors.
Example of a lean and mean Tourist Haven: I have written about this before but it is worth mentioning here. Catalina Island is our worthy model. The whole island is no bigger than Catanduanes, has a lot less potential tourist destinations than Catanduanes but at the present time enjoys millions of dollars in cash flow from tourists YEAR LONG.
The island business planners simply focused on ONE ideal spot on the island and built a tourist destination out of a small town of only 3200 residents and an area of no more than 3 square miles and created a tourist haven that is small and yet loaded with attractions, activities and fun. The little 'tourist park' or city has small but efficient hotels with nice clean air conditioned rooms, all kinds of restaurants and beer joints, a few grocery stores, gift shops, a theater. They offer boat rides, boat rentals, scuba diving lessons, skin diving, parasailing, fishing trips. The boat ride includes 'underwater' viewing windows where people see loads of fat and overfed coral fish. Fishing in this special area is off limits of course. Night time viewings are also offered. Most of these activities are done within a small area. Daytime bus trips are offered to tour the inland part of the island, visit scenic spots.
This little island gets visited by two cruise ships loaded with tourists twice a week in addition to the folks that come in ferry boats from mainland California. And of course by out of state and foreign visitors. Everything that the tourists need is inside this little 'tourist park'. All the support facilities and the fun things are right there.
This is very important.
Our early efforts at tourism are indeed noble. But they are not lean and mean. It is not efficient and it is not much fun. Not much fun because there are no choices of activities that will cater to different age groups. Not efficient in the sense that we probably do not offer hot showers or some with no air conditioning. Local restaurants that cater to foreign visitors are not there. We can not expect these folks to eat nothing but local food. These tourist destinations are scattered and far from each other so the support services can not be brought to them easily by future business establishments.
Solution : A 'Tourist Park' strategically situated close to a very nice beach and a support system which will cater to ALL the needs and conveniences of the various tourists from many cultures and age groups.
A real estate developer finds this nice spot by the beach , lay out the plan, sell the lots to prospective businesses. I mean this has to have the support of the provincial planners. A complete plan of what facilities and businesses will be built or allowed to be built should be in place .
Such Tourist Park will require a good amount of electrical power and perhaps natural gas for heating water. This is going to be a 'steep' demand for our limited services on the island.
Idea/Tool 8. Mini Hydro and More: I heard from the grapevine that our thinkers and planners on the island are toying with building a mini-hydro electric plant. Be nice if part of the output of this hydro plant will be set aside to support this Tourist Park. We do not want a Tourist Park where power blinks out when the air conditioners run or food are cold because microwave ovens are not nuking the meals on time or the brew are warm because the reefers are dead. Even a cold shower during the early morning is just as bad a turn off to any convenience-loving tourist. And yes ladies and gentlemen even us folks who can live without air conditioners , microwave ovens , refrigerators demand to have these goodies when we are on vacation somewhere. Why go on a trip and live in misery. We can do that by staying home!
Idea/Tool 9. Aquaculture. Aquaculture is actually part of agriculture. Aquaculture/agriculture formed the first vehicles of cash flow for economic giants like Taiwan, Japan and even China. They produced all kinds of grains like rice, corn etc. Agriculture byproducts as cereals, bread, flour, breakfast bars and hundreds more are all EXPORT items. So from agriculture and exporting these byproducts they built their money belts fatter. Soon light industry came in. Bigger exports followed. More money or income for all. Heavy industry followed. And the rest is history.
Aquaculture came alongside agriculture. Taiwan still holds the top position as the biggest exporter of frozen tilapia to the United States. This alone brings them millions of dollars a year.
Aquaculture is done inland, along the coastline.
Idea/Tool 10. An excellent and profitable Market. All these products need to get sold for decent profits. China is getting very very rich by flooding the world with their products. I find very few non- Chinese products in many stores. Almost everything is made in China. This does not mean that the Chinese got very smart all of a sudden and started producing all these products all by themselves. A lot of these products are being manufactured UNDER LICENSE BY all these multinational companies, mostly U.S. companies. When products are made overseas under license by a multinational company, production tricks and knowhow is passed down to the producing country. U.S. companies also make money by being able to manufacture things at a lower cost due to very cheap labor in China then the products are sold here cheaper.
This is the market that we are talking about. Your bag of onions when sold here will give you more money. Your locallly made but under license and brand named t-shirt will sell for more than ten times in this market. Now , that is how we can speed up our efforts at increasing the size of our bank accounts.
Idea/Tool 11. Our own international air and sea ports. Please note that I said come up with ten ideas. When one is fired up , one can go not a hundred but a hundred and fifty per cent . It's called going the extra mile! We have both the air and sea ports. Let us just make them into international ports and start doing business with the world at its present level. Why not?
I will be a happy citizen of the island to see the paperwork completed and the national government blesses our provincial Customs and Immigrations Departments. Then you and I will be even more happy to see the first real imports of even small things as sunkist orange and apples from as far away as the U.S. or a bicycle from China. And ladies and gentlemen, when we see the first few boxes of tshirts, handicrafts, food products leave our small and humble seaport , knowing that this small first items of export will mark the beginning of a kick-butt economy.......you and I and the whole citizenry will no longer be the same. These are just the beginning.
There goes eleven tools and ideas on how we can get the ball rolling and there are more. Impossible? Nonsense!!! We are surrounded by other Asian countries who are doing this day in and day out. We need to get up and go! We are left behind in the dust but there is nothing more exciting than the desire to catch up and then excel. It is doable. I kid you not!
Again this is not a one-man show. I dare you, you who is a big thinker. You who is sick and tired of mediocrity. You who share this dream to soar. Soar to great achievements. You who want to be counted. You who know in your heart that you could be a part of a great accomplishment. It is about time we start kicking butt. We can do it!
