Hope as an Economic Capital08.11.10
Aired on November 8, 2010
Narration by RG Foncardas
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Hope as an Economic Capital
Our newly-minted President has a trust rating of 88%. Fine, but it means nothing if it remains as a statistic.
Already, some groups have made broad hints. On his oath-taking day, we read 180 overseas Filipinos came into the country for a two-day discussion. On the agenda: How Filipinos abroad could help jump start an economy mired in an enormous debt.
The dominant suggestion was to interest the global Filipinos to invest their established average savings of 11% in the country. It is estimated that Global Filipinos, which include permanent residents and emigrants in other countries as well as contract workers, total some 11 million in 230 countries.
To be clear, this 11% savings does not refer to the usual “consumption remittances” sent by our countrymen and women abroad to their families. Without the plague of corruption which Pres. Noy promised to reduce, if not eliminate, these monies livening up our economy will not only double the remittances, but could even buy back dollar debts with pesos to control inflation.
With similar optimism and concern, the Center for Corporate Governance of the Asian Institute of Management also convened a round-table discussion to promote integrity and accountability in business. The Center desired to raise the level of awareness on the social and economic costs of corruption among Philippine businesses and of how such corruption may be countered on practical and ethical levels. A first step would be to hold big corporations and businesses to a formal pledge to abide by ethical business practices and to support a nation-wide campaign against corruption.
These initiatives are both praise-worthy and heart-warming. Surely the best is yet to come.
In the current situation, hope is an economic capital. It is the same hope that placed President Noy in office. Do not squander this hope, Mr. President; let wisdom indeed be your guide.
Good idea,but why should overseas Filipinos risk their savings only to find out they went into the pockets of the greedy corrupt elites.