The bigger challenge
Let’s enjoy the occasional good news and appreciate the fact that gross domestic product grew 7.5 percent in the second quarter — the fastest rate in the past 20 years. But let’s also acknowledge that too many people are complaining about the failure of economic benefits to trickle down to the grassroots. The administration should be credited for implementing unpopular but necessary measures to put the nation’s fiscal house in order and promote economic growth. But economic managers themselves have admitted that they need to work more on the trickle-down effect.In confronting this challenge, the government should listen to its critics. Economic growth is consumption-driven. While figures on foreign direct investments and exports aren’t too bad, they pale in comparison to those of neighboring countries. Entrepreneurship can use a boost. Agricultural production is down. All of these factors translate into fewer job opportunities. And the unemployed and underemployed are the first to bemoan the absence of the trickle-down effect amid glowing economic growth figures.
Attracting more job-generating investments has long been a challenge to this administration. We know what investors need, foremost of which are adequate infrastructure facilities. But almost every big-ticket infrastructure project in this country, including an airport terminal, becomes bogged down in corruption scandals. Investors complain about high power costs, but efforts to address the problem are going nowhere. Investors want transparency, accountability, a reliable regulatory environment and the rule of law, including curbs on smuggling — factors that guarantee a level playing field for all. These things the government cannot guarantee.
There is another factor that accounts for the absence of the trickle-down effect: economic growth cannot keep pace with population growth. An ever-increasing number of people are competing for the same amount of resources, basic services and job opportunities. But the administration has always regarded the population problem like a cold virus that will go away by itself even if ignored. This policy of benign neglect is mandated from the very top. President Arroyo should not be irritated when critics question the economic good news from Malacañang. The bigger challenge is making the masses enjoy the benefits of economic growth.
