PH could be Asia’s next tiger?’

We don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Talk of deft ‘diplomatese’. Or kind, comforting words during a wake.

But then again what can a very friendly, rich  and generous Asean neighbor and Malay brother tell another.

Somehow, it’s just a polite way of saying we never really grew out of being a tiger cub since the 1970s when the late President Marcos launched his ambitious 11 major industrial projects.

For, if truth be told, the Philippines could have “been there, done that” in the race to what has been called “NIC-hood” – the status of being a newly industrialized country as early as the martial law years.

But many events and factors conspired to abort the national dream of becoming a full-blown tiger economy.       

And so we had to endure listening to a guy from a nation established just a little over 30 years ago tell us we still have hope after all.  

A visiting regional business leader from Brunei said the country still had a fresh opportunity to be Asia’s next tiger economy, potentially regaining the glory lost decades ago.

Dato Timothy Ong, a leading Brunei businessman who founded and now chairs regional dialogue platform Asia Inc. Forum, said he saw signs that the Philippines could revisit its goal of being the next Asian tiger despite staying at the bottom half of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in terms of economic performance for years.

Ong is also the convener of Asean 100 Leadership Forum, which will be hosted by Makati City today and tomorrow. This year’s Asean meet aims to foster insightful and intelligent discussions on the future of the regional grouping and how the region can emerge as one of the world’s significant economic blocs.

For Ong, the Philippines can join the ranks of Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea  and Hong Kong, the so-called Asian “tiger” economies or NICS, citing five reasons why the country, though a “dark horse,” had the makings of the next “tiger”:

* First and foremost, the new leadership under President Aquino has promised to weed out corruption in the country, which has been creating a lot of optimism. It’s widely perceived that the high level of corruption in the country has driven up the cost of doing business;

* Second is the country’s vast pool of hardworking and skilled manpower, many of whom have been deployed across the globe.

* Third factor would be its “centers of excellence”. Ong noted that the country has become a competitive hub for business process outsourcing, likening the Makati central business district to a “First World” city in a Third World country. 

* Fourth is the country’s home-grown companies that were at par with the world’s best like fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp., international port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. and the Ayala Group of Companies; and

* Fifth is its “sharply improving competitiveness” supporting its aspiration to be the next tiger economy, on the back of recent reports that it had jumped 10 notches to 75 from 85 in the latest ranking of the World Economic Forum. This happened only within the first 15 months of the term of the new President.