Businessmen hail Arroyo admin for strong Q1 performance

By Ma. Elisa P. Osorio
Saturday, June 2, 2007

The country’s largest business organization lauded yesterday President Arroyo and her economic team for the strong first quarter economic performance saying they are optimistic the growth will continue until the end of the year.

“This track ensures that the economy is in for a more stable and stronger growth in the next six months, providing the means to achieve the elusive seven percent growth in the gross national product (GNP) that Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is advocating for,” PCCI president Samie Lim said.

According to Lim, the good performance was due to the strong ties between the public and the private sector.

“This leap forward has been noted as the highest in the country in the last 17 years and we are ahead of the rest of ASEAN with the exception of Vietnam. The President, her economic team and the private sector really delivered in rallying investors’ interest and confidence on the economy,” Lim added.

Lim likewise said the 2007 mid-term elections was one of the driving forces of the economy. “While we note the big contribution of these sectors to the strong performance of the economy, we note for a fact that the election spending across the country has helped trigger this strong growth,” Lim explained.

The 6.9 percent GDP growth rate has been attributed to the intensification of activities in the services sector, which accounts for 54 percent of total GDP.

Lim also noted other factors that continue to make the economy vibrant which include a stronger peso, a record-high PSE index, an infrastructure budget of about P1 trillion, surging OFW remittances, and increasing investments in business process outsourcing (BPO), tourism, property and construction sectors.

”These progressive steps will cause developmental effects to create a more stable economy and a highly predictable business environment benefiting the different sectors of the economy,” Lim stressed.

Lim also expressed optimism that with the implementation of reforms to improve the macroeconomic environment such as efforts to enhance tax collection, fiscal policies supporting pump-priming activity and effective debt management, the economy will continue to grow.