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Survey: Philippines needs 2 yrs to recover
MORE business leaders believe that the Philippine economy still needs over two years to recover from the impact of Covid-19, a new PwC Philippines and Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) of chief executive officers (CEOs) survey revealed.
The PwC MAP 2022 Philippine CEO survey that follows the conference theme “The Wins of Change: Thriving in a World of In-Betweens” surveyed 119 CEOs, primarily members of MAP. The respondents answered the online survey, with the responses spread across a range of industries.
Of the total CEO respondents, 52 percent believe that it will take more than two years for the Philippine economy to recover from the ill impacts of the pandemic, which is in contrast to the government’s, particularly the National Economic and Development Authority‘s (NEDA), economic recovery projection.
The NEDA earlier said that the Philippine economy is expected to return to its pre-pandemic growth track by this year as the country continues to build on progress in recovering from Covid-19 from the first half of the Marcos administration.
Despite global and local challenges, however, 87 percent of the CEOs are confident that their company will experience revenue growth in the next 12 months and 89 percent in the next three years, the PwC MAP 2022 CEO survey showed, noting that the possible sources of optimism include the over 7-percent economic growth in the first two quarters of 2022.
“While the global economy was disrupted by the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on the prices of commodities and supply chain conditions, the Philippines was not severely affected. Although the war resulted in higher fuel and wheat costs, the impact on the Philippines was not as severe as that of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 because of the country’s geographic distance from the war-torn countries as well as the limited business activities with both Russia and Ukraine,” the report stated.
The CEOs said that infrastructure development, domestic consumption and government spending will be the key growth drivers of the Philippine economy in the next 12 months.
“As a major source of employment, having contributed over six million jobs prior to the pandemic, infrastructure will continue to be among the top priorities of the new administration,” the survey said, citing the government’s thrust to maintain infrastructure development spending at 5 percent to 6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
To recover from the pandemic, the CEOs also stressed that the government should prioritize agriculture, education and health care in the next two years.
“While self-sufficiency has been the government’s long-term goal, challenges such as poor infrastructure, backyard farming, lack of innovation, as well as the ineffective implementation of the agrarian reform program, prevented the country from fully producing its agricultural needs,” the report said.
Meanwhile, the CEOs identified the United States and China as the most important countries for their company’s growth. The two countries are also the Philippines’ top trading partners in 2021, having exported products worth $11.8 billion and $11.6 billion to the US and China, respectively.
They also believe that Japan, which was not part of last year’s top markets, emerged as the third most important country this year, as the Asian neighbor has been providing jobs to Filipinos through the over 900 Japanese companies in the Philippines.
Moving forward, the CEOs identified accountability and transparency, fight against corruption, and attracting more foreign investments as the top three areas that the Marcos administration should prioritize. They said prudence and proper government spending should be ensured as the government’s outstanding debt reached P12.89 trillion in July 2022.
“The CEO survey results tell us the journey that we should take, as well as a mirror on where we are.
The collective insights of leaders give everyone a level of confidence on how to plan their journey, where they are lagging, as well as what could set them apart,” Alex Cabrera, PwC Philippines chairman emeritus and ESG leader, said.
“I also hope the government will take heed of these sentiments as the private sector is simply an invaluable and indispensable partner to achieving success in nation-building and global competitiveness,” he added.
For his part, MAP President Rogelio Singson pointed out that the survey sparks dialogues and ideas among CEOs. “This eighth of a series of annual PwC MAP Philippine CEO surveys are envisioned to benchmark the changes in how CEOs think, react and innovate. It has become a regular part of the MAP International CEO Conference, which continues to serve as a premier venue for bringing together business leaders from various fields to share insights and experiences, and imbue them with the know-how and passion to remain competitive in a highly globalized environment.”
Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/09/13/business/top-business/survey-ph-needs-2-yrs-to-recover/1858219