Bailing Out the Philippine Economy

[jpdm]

When the country abandoned its nationalist/protectionist economic development model in the late 1960s, the Philippines, which was the envy of many countries in Asia (we are second to Japan in economic and industrial development before late 60s)....was reduced as the sick man of Asia (very recent studies in international journals)

As it is now, no matter how the Arroyo government is trying to convince the Pinoys that the economy is in good shape, our economy is in recession and still mired in worsening poverty.

Very few people are experiencing "the fruits of economic growth" (if there is any)

The following are the excerpts of the column sent by Allan Duane Mendoza—of the Fair Trade Alliance—outlining the resolution that his organization adopted to bail out the Philippine Economy.

The economic model is very simple yet I think very effective in making our economy alot better.

We also demand that the government immediately put a halt to the senseless automatic appropriation of two-thirds of the national budget for debt servicing.



We should instead adopt the Argentinian budgeting system, which makes allocation for debt servicing only after urgent adequate allocations have been made for urgent and priority social spending.





Like other countries, the Philippines needs a large stimulus package directed at the domestic market to preserve and create millions of jobs.



The government should be able to spend as much as it can on productivity-raising infrastructures such as school buildings, renewable energy, communal irrigation projects, farm-to-market roads, harvest silos, barangay health clinics, public transport systems and so on.


Finally, we call on all Filipinos to join us in the movement to cast aside the bankrupt neo-liberal economic model of governance and promote instead our [SIZE=4]vision of Nationalist Development[/SIZE].based on our five-point agenda composed of the following:


-a coherent, balanced and pro-Filipino trade-development economic governance structure;



-a program of re-calibrating our agro-industrial fences to give our industry and agriculture a breathing space for survival and growth;



-enhancing our national productive capacity through the all-out mobilization of domestic resources in support of industry, agriculture and entrepreneurship;



-unleash our people’s productivity capacity through a rounded program of human resources development and completion of asset reforms;



-and, finally, a program for the[SIZE=4] inculcation of the culture of industrialism, excellence and economic nationalism.
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A Better World Is Possible! A Better Philippines Is Attainable!
bizzfizz_98*yahoo.com

From Manila Times
January 2, 2009
Rene Martel

What do you think?