Philippine economy

Hello dear bloggers,

Happy New Year!

I have returned to the land of the rising sun; it has become my second home country to me. I am now in the train on the way to my laboratory. Welp, if the title isn't enough, today I want to talk about the Philippine economy. About a day ago, my mom and I were discussing Philippine stock market via Skype. "It closed at 6%," Mom said. Now I'm not really a stock market girl, so she went on to explain that this is actually quite strong and quite a good day for the Philippine stock market.

When i went back home for Christmas last December, sure, i did notice some changes.  I'm not sure if it 's just me, or the people really got livelier.  People were out in the malls, and were actually buying stuff.  It seemed different to me, because some time ago people just stayed in the malls to relieve themselves from the hot weather.  Or just window shopping.  But not really buying stuff.  a second observation was that there were a lot of Japanese establishments in the malls everywhere.  Actually, I could even see a DAISO area inside the supermarket in Philippines, at about 66pesos per item -- with the Japanese labels (written in Katakana and Hiragana and Kanji).  I told my sister that hey, i think Japanese people could actually survive here in our country.  There is a Daiso store and labels are in Nihonggo.

come the night of January 8, My professor (mouse, a.k.a. the robot), talked to me about the Philippine economy featured in NHK.  (NHK is a Japanese TV news channel).  According to him, the report said that GDP growth of Philippines was at 7%, it was very close to China.  China's GDP growth is around 8 or 9%.  Apparently, China's economy is one of the strongest in the world.

The report went on to say that Philippine's people are good in the English language so it is fairly easy to communicate to Filipinos...

And for those two reasons (economy plus English), many Japanese establishments/companies are moving to the Philippines... FRom China!

OK.  So that explains my observations from last month.  That's why, whenever i went inside the malls, i saw Japanese establishments like Uniqlo, like daiso and almost every corner, there is a Japanese restaurant.  Now it makes sense.  Actually, it even makes more sense.  Because as most people are aware, China is getting more aggressive in the issue of the disputed islands.  China is claiming the islands which are part of Philippines, and part of Japan, part of other Asian countries as well like Vietnam, Malaysia, and so on.  Now i see what is happening.  moreover, chinese people are shutting down Japanese companies in China because of the territory island issue.  Well, good luck to them, they are just hurting their own economy.  People are start going to lose jobs - and money.

I see more.  You know all this time, during the disputed islands issue between China and Philippines, Japan has always been helping Philippines.  They have been offering Philippines with battle ships.  also, they have been giving the Philippines with their old trains.  I was surprised to see a Japanese train roaming around Manila, going to Bicol.  You'd know it was a  Japanese train because the sign on the train said "回送"  God, is it just me, or everyone's turning Japanese?!?

Do you remember a post i did here sometime around september or october about the Japanese government helping the NAIA airport?  At that time i thought about why Japan is giving so much to my country?  do they have a plan to colonize us?  Why are they doing this?!? well, it now is crystal clear to me.  and they arent going to colonize us.

Having said all these, there is only one prayer in my heart.  I hope that Philippine economy will continue to get strong and that the partnership between Japan and the Philippines will bear sweet sweet fruits in the near future.  It occurred to me that Japan is taking a risk here, and putting the trust to the Philippine economy.  and moving your establishments from one country to another is not a joke... it is a big decision, quite a risk for a country who has one of the biggest economies in the world and is totally suffering from a global crisis now.  I hope and pray that their expectations will be met and that they will be more than satisfied with this decision.  Investing in the Philippines is beneficial for both the Philippines and Japan.  If everything works out fine, it will be a win-win situation.  I hope that we can take a rebound, like in the 1960s, when the Philippines was just second to Japan in Asia.  I wish to finally erase the image that the "Philippines is the basket case of Asia."

So there you have it.  Amidst the global crisis everyone is facing today, my country, the Philippines, is getting stronger.  and i hope it will even get better.  I dont know about Pres Noy, honestly, i did not vote for him in the last elections.  I am not against him, but at that time i wanted a president who will actually DO SOMETHING TO IMPROVE.  and based on his records as senator, he didnt do much so i preferred someone else.  I dont know if all of these good results are because of the work of his administration, or maybe he just reaped the seeds that were sown from the previous administration, if there were any... but one thing i see is that i am impressed by his performance as President.  Add to that making a stand Yes to RH bill and bringing in more and more investors in the country.  Nice. I really want to commend his work.  And let us continue to support him.  He promised to bring about change in our nation.  Well, i think he is doing his job.