Review Filipino Competitiveness

Senator Edgardo J. Angara today called for a thorough review and assessment of the state of Filipino competitiveness, and challenged the private sector to lead in training the country's young and skilled workers. He also sought for a radical review of the labor market and the revision of the Labor Code to adapt to changes in the workplace and in the nature of work.

"The Labor Code is now considered to be an obstacle to many industries in the country. Several provisions are obsolete. For instance, we should lift the prohibition against nightwork for women because we already have thousands of young Filipinas working at night, manning the call centers. Simply lifting the prohibition against that is a step towards competitiveness," said Angara, speaking before executives, professionals and human resource managers in the National Convention of the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) held recently in Crowne Plaza Hotel, Ortigas.

Angara noted that the Philippines has steadily and consistently declined in competitiveness over the last three years, because of a "lack of strategic human resource development plan, deepened by haphazard national spending on social services and basic infrastructure."

"We score very poorly in public expenditure on education, health, research and development (R&D) and basic infrastructure. In fact, the share of education, culture and manpower development to the total national budget steadily decreased from 2004 to this year," he said.

He emphasized the need for an inventory of skills and sectors that will generate job opportunities for Filipinos.

"Agribusiness, food processing, electronics technology, cyber services, tourism including medical tourism, seafaring, aviation, education, mining, construction and the creative fields of the performing arts, architecture and design will be the key drivers of our economy. These industries are expected to generate more than 4 million jobs from now until 2010. Massive and concentrated training on these areas will allow us to compete globally," he said.

"We should make the labor market more flexible to create more jobs," he said. "Examples in Europe where the markets are rigid and inflexible, like France and Germany, show how the economy can suffer and remain stagnant, with rising inflation. Meanwhile, countries with flexible and more relaxed labor markets, like the UK, have sustained a buoyant economy."

"Human resources constitute the ultimate basis of a nation's wealth. We must therefore work towards putting Filipino talent and skill in the forefront of competitiveness," said Angara. "The world has dramatically changed. If we are to grow as a nation, we need to prioritize our spending and improve our capacity for innovation - that is, the capacity to produce a wider array of quality goods and services, accelerate the pace of technological change, and integrate with the global economy."