Monday, May 23, 2005

 

Troublesome Links

I have been using our local Philstar website for some of my news source and lo and behold they must be on a tight budget that they do not archive articles even for a short period of time. The links I provided for certain articles in the Philstar website are no longer available on their server. Their server must be skimping on valuable hard drive space. This is too bad because Philstar is one of a few papers that speak the truth on a regular basis.

So I apologize for the inconvenience. We will try using links with more reliability in keeping articles up for a good while and archives their stuff for a much longer period.

Joe Joson
Anaheim

Saturday, May 21, 2005

 

A Ray of Hope from Congress

In my article dated May 17, 2005 , I lamented a rarity of sorts from our Congress and Senate, news of any measures that our great lawmakers themselves have initiated to kill corruption or improve the economy. Well, one of our Congressmen, this time it is Negros Oriental Representative Herminio Teves, has raised a very interesting proposal. According to him, Congress, being the 'master of the purse', should hold periodic audits of 14 GOCC's or Government Owned and Controlled Corporations to see if it they are still profitable business entities. Please read on.

I would say this is a good start. But we should hope for a more aggressive, hands-on approach by Congress and the Senate in dealing with this challenge. These GOCC's have been perennial financial losers draining Billions of Pesos yearly from the government in the form of subsidies. Our leaders should take an extremely active part in making these institutions profitable. These institutions just like any other business entity should be re structured and streamlined with nothing but PROFIT as their objective. If Napocor for instance start becoming profitable , it could start passing down its profit to the public by lowering energy rates. As it is, we have very high rates because Napocor is trying to recover its loses by digging deeper in the comsumers pockets. No business prospers this way.

Periodic audits? It looks like we need to have our eyes , ears and hands on these institutions until they are profitable.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

 

A Couple of Good News from Our Asian Neighbors

The good news brought about by Chinese President Mr. Hu Jintao's visit to the Phlippines with his pledge to loan us $2 billion for various projects is still fresh in our memories. Now we have the Taiwanese government with yet more good news of economic assistance. The Taiwanese are looking at the Subic Bay industrial center for some possible investments. This is great and exciting news! If this continues and hopefully other nations jump in on the bandwagon, we may be witnessing the beginning of a renewed trend of foreign investment coming to our country. Or we could be witnessing and benefitting from a rivalry of sorts from the two Chinese heavyweights in economy. It would be great to see these two try to outdo each other in who could provide the bigger investment.

More good news from yet another Asian neighbor . This time it is the battle against corruption which if we remember is the worst killer of economies. With funding from our European friends Hong Kong has 'loaned' us their corruption buster and he is very positive he can eradicate corruption in the Philippines!! If that isn't good news , I don't know what is! Remember this guy put an end to Hong Kong's corruption years ago. And our increasingly smarter players in government have hired his services. I like this guy's prescription on how to eradicate corruption in the Philippines. I think he means business.

Now, if only we would start seeing similar positive projections on how corruption is to be eradicated in our country from the more prominent quarters of our government. It is still a rare occurrence to see any news about any of our Congressmen or Senators proclaim to the public and lay out a game plan on corruption busting. Well, we have our hopes up. They will hopefully rally support behind the gentleman from Hong Kong soon. Our neighbors have taken an interest in helping us get on our feet, help us start walking then perhaps take off on a sprint to an economic first base. We should not then be so shy at doing all we can so we can pull a few home runs!

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

 

Progressive Economy and Corruption Don't Mix

There is an alarming rate in corruption related deaths of journalists in the Philippines. So much so that some international watchdogs are getting involved. The Philippine Star reports yet another killing of a journalist. Said journalist was a hardhitting reporter and was doing his job in reporting corruption. Please read more on this.

The positive side to all of this: The killings is an indication that those who perpetrate these crimes are desperate. They are afraid of getting exposed for fear of prosecution in court or simply don't want the public to know. They are starting to run a little ..... scared. I sympathize with the families of these great warriors but the ultimate sacrifice is not lost.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

 

A Peek at What a Great Economy Looks Like

Feature Taiwan. Check it out at this link . Taiwan's IT engineers, Taiwan's high tech district and science park. Awesome economy. By the way, this is great reading but for those who do not like big, long articles .... this is not for you. Unfortunately, long articles is the only way to paint a big picture of some enormous accomplishments.

Monday, May 09, 2005

 

Good News on ERC

Please re-visit Mr Nick Nicholson's blog at this link
and go to his Journal. Read up on ERC. Looks like ERC is trying very hard to make their activities very transparent. I see an effort here by the government to make transactions of a newly formed entity very open and transparent. This we hope are the early signs of a wider effort at ridding our government of corruption. A very long road ahead but small this might be it is still a move towards doing the right thing. We need to rally behind this effort and be proud of the guys who are making this happen.

ADB, USAID and the World Bank, also some Japanese agencies are helping out with the ERC. ERC being new to privatization. So hold on folks. We have some really positive things happening here. In the long run we hope to see cheaper if not affordable electricity rates so our economy will respond a lot quicker. The march is on!! We are going to have a great economy. We need to support everything that helps this noble effort.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

 

It's the Economy, Really

This week's issue of the U.S. Edition of Newsweek features a special report called 'China's century'. If you can get a copy good for you. It is one great reading. Why? Because a lot of what China does and did with its economy is worth watching. And I am sure we would not mind duplicating even a 'teeny' fraction of its economic growth. It's economy has grown an average 9 percent a year for the last 25 years. In the last 25 years 'It has moved 300 million people from poverty and quadrupled the average Chinese person's income'! Three hundred million is more than three times the size of our population in the Philippines! If the same economic miracle in China happened in the Philippines, we would all be living in prosperity now.

China now produces more coal, steel and cement than any country. Ranks second to the U.S. as user of energy, third in the world as largest oil importer. China now holds the second spot of having the largest foreign reserves in dollars. And a ton more. China in a few short words has become very very rich in a comparatively short time.

What did the Chinese do to accomplish this 'epic' growth? It started around 1978 when the then party boss Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech telling his countrymen to focus on modernization. In short they OPENED THEIR ECONOMY TO FOREIGN INVESTMENT AND TRADE.

Opening ones economy to foreign trade and investment sounds very simple and easy. It does take excellent planning and execution. Reforms that were MARKET-FRIENDLY were created. Singapore got rid of most of its PROTECTIONISTS policies. China did a lot of the same. Japan in comparison has kept a lot of protectionists policies and did not open its market to foreign investment.

I repeat, China opened its economy to FOREIGN TRADE AND INVESTMENT. Now, if it takes us the next five to seven years to OPEN Catanduanes to foreign trade and investment, add ten more years to that and at that time we would be at an economic level of achievement that would be many many notches higher than if we did not do it at all.

We need our own Customs Department to handle imports and exports. We need to convert our local seaports and airport into international ones. Small shipments at first will become bigger as we grow our trade income. Then we will have damn good reasons to build bigger facilities! I heard that our great Congressman is pushing tourism. Then we will do much better if we had our own Immigrations Department so tourists from Asia and beyond can get in and out of the island without going through the mess in Manila. I dare everyone to make this a reality now. This will bring a lot of income. Straight flights to and from Asia.... not an impossibility. I would say it is easily doable as we speak.

In five to seven years we hope to have our electrical Interconnection from the mainland. At the same time, the circumferential road would have been completed...maybe. But let us think big . And act big. Let us work together. You will be surprised at how we will excel if we dare to act on these dreams. I say, these things are doable soon ... if not.. now .. for some of them. At any rate let us move forward!! NOW!

Got to cut this short so our readers do not get sleepy. Want your ideas , opinions published in this blog? Send them to me at blackhawk7499@gmail.com. Thanks!

Joe Joson

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