I DISCUSSED in two previous columns the opportunities arising from the food crisis, particularly in developing agriculture as an engine of economic growth. I don’t know how many people have noticed it, but there’s a pleasant change going on in the culture of doing business.
Some companies, instead of being deterred by the current crises—the credit [...]

Read Part 1
FORESIGHT has served me well in private business. This is why I firmly believe that preparing for the future will also serve our country well. And another lesson in business that should also be an important part of governance is that there are opportunities in times of crisis.
In my previous column I wrote [...]

WE DO HAVE a rice problem. I say this regardless of official pronouncements about adequate supplies. And the primary reason is negligence: The government has neglected the agriculture sector.
That’s as far as I would go with respect to pinpointing responsibility for the problem. I would rather look at the positive side, which is confronting the problem [...]

WHEN GLOBAL Source reported last month that the 7.3-percent growth in the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007 might have been overstated, the immediate reaction was to label the New York-based think tank as an unfair skeptic or one with the usual western bias against developing economies.
Actually, the report was prepared not by westerners [...]

WHEN there was a great clamor from the public, including the Senate, for transparency in oil pricing, the Department of Energy committed itself to examine the books of oil companies to find out if the increases in domestic prices of petroleum products were based on increases in the prices of their suppliers, as they claimed.
That [...]

Speech delivered at the 118th Assembly of the Interparliamentary Union (IPU) in Cape Town, South Africa 
THE WORLD BANK defines poverty in the most simple and understandable manner; “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and [...]

THE RICE CRISIS highlights a very serious and lamentable problem. And this is that the Filipino farmer remains among the most exploited member of society, despite decades of reform, including land distribution.
Indeed, the rice crisis explains why the country’s poverty level has been rising despite the much-ballyhooed 7.3-percent growth in the gross domestic product for 2007. That’s [...]

WE pay a big price in encouraging investors to put up factories and operate industries in our country.
We forgo huge amounts of tax revenues as a result of tax holidays and other incentives given to investors, but we do not receive in return such benefits, such as jobs and opportunities for our people and development [...]

A BIG MISTAKE!
That’s the first thing that came to mind after reading reports that a member of the Cabinet had threatened to send tax examiners to private companies following the Makati Business Club’s (MBC) statement calling for the resignation of officials in connection with the controversial national broadband network (NBN)-ZTE contract. And, very quickly, an [...]

THE PHILIPPINE economy is in a peculiar situation: in general, business is bullish—some will even dare say it’s booming.
On the other hand, there is trouble outside our borders: the United States is worried about a recession after it was hit by the subprime crisis, and other countries are concerned that a US recession will lead to [...]