24 May 2016
Philippines, May 2016: A landmark report on the Philippines just produced by the global publishing, research and consultancy firm Oxford Business Group (OBG) charts increased public and private involvement in the large-scale transport projects to improve connectivity amid a backdrop of geographical challenges.
The Report: Philippines 2016 looks at the emergence of gas as a promising resource as the country faces obstacles related to ageing fields in the energy sector.
Coverage includes an analysis of the impact of adverse weather conditions on the Philippines’ agricultural sector, which is largely reliant on strong global market prices. The publication looks, in particular, at the country’s increase in capital investment in travel and tourism over a six-year period with plans to renovate airports and to increase its leisure offerings.
Ongoing private and public sector efforts to continually develop the Philippines’ economy were the subject of discussion at the launch of OBG’s latest report, which took place May 13 at the Tower Club.
At the event, participants included Francisco C. Sebastian Vice Chairman of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company; Marvin Españo, Chairperson and CEO of Punongbayan & Araullo; Guillermo D. Luchangco, Chairman and CEO of ICCP Group, Crisanto Frianeza, Secretary-General of Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and OBG’s Managing Editor for Asia Paulius Kuncinas as a moderator, explored the ongoing economic development.
OBG’s CEO and Editor in Chief, Andrew Jeffreys said figures in the Philippines showing an average of 6.2% GDP growth from 2010 to 2014 and 5.8% in 2015 indicate stability in economic expansion, despite the dry spell that affected farm and food-processing sectors.
“With an improved long-term outlook, we expect the economy to continue expanding on the back of continued government investment in infrastructure until 2017,” he said. “This is crucial in easing costly transportation bottlenecks and fostering further growth of other sectors, such as business process outsourcing and tourism.”
Paulius Kuncinas, OBG’s Managing Editor for Asia, added that The Report: Philippines 2016 had highlighted the key role that the business processing outsourcing sector will play in the next phase of the country’s development.
“Business process outsourcing has been key to driving wider expansion in the Philippines, particularly in construction and retail, due to stronger demand from advanced economies,” he said. “While the sector has so far been dominated by voice-centric services, we expect that the industry will expand toward knowledge process outsourcing.”
The Report: Philippines 2016 contains a detailed sector-by sector analysis across the economy, alongside interviews with leading representatives, including President Benigno Aquino III; Le Luong Minh, Secretary-General of ASEA; Roselan Johar Mohamed, Chairman of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area Business Council and Cesar V Purisima, Secretary at the Department of Finance.
The report marks the culmination of more than six months of field research by a team of analysts from OBG. It assesses trends and developments across the economy, including macroeconomics, infrastructure, banking and other sectoral developments. The publication is available in print or online.
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