Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the opening ceremony of the 19th Biennial Convention of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry

[Delivered at the Mandarin Hotel, Makati, March 27, 1993]

Lead, follow or
get out of the way!

I would like to address myself here today to the task of rebuilding trust and confidence between us—between business and Government, between our Filipino-Chinese community and the larger national community consisting of all kinds of Filipinos, and between all of us who want the best for our country.

Your theme “Aiming for Continued Economic Growth” describes accurately what the Federation has been doing in the last 40 years. This is, indeed, commendable. But if I may make a suggestion, it would be better to adopt for the country—and not just for the Federation—a similar motto: “Aiming for Accelerated Economic Growth.” Our economic growth last year was very slow. We must aim for accelerated growth because we have so much to do and we have very little time. We have been left behind, and our nation remains poor, so we have to double-time. If there is still one major problem that handcuffs our efforts to move our nation forward, it is clearly the residual problem of trust and confidence between business and Government.

On one hand, many people in our business community feel that Government is intruding too much into the sphere of the private sector and not doing enough about its own responsibility.

On the other hand, those in Government and the general public believe that business is getting away with far too much and is not doing enough for society, especially the masses who are poor. And so between these two poles of suspicion and mistrust, our country can only crawl with lackluster growth, and become prey to gossip and doomsday predictions. Under such conditions, even our most promising efforts at reform and change can hardly be expected to energize the nation.

Rebuilding trust and confidence

When I discouraged some suggestions earlier that I take part in selecting the officers of your Federation, I declined, not because of indifference to the work of this Chamber or because of the character of its leadership. I meant to underscore my belief that meddling in your affairs is the surest way to weaken the rebuilding of trust and confidence between us.

You will recall that during the dialogue between us at Malacañang last week, I challenged the Federation to become the nucleus for uniting the Filipino-Chinese community because some among you are not part of this Federation or continue to oppose the Federation. I wanted you to reach out to the diverse elements of our society who proudly come, as you do, from Chinese ethnic origins. This is what we must do now—reach out and unite—in the same way that I have reached out to the extreme Left and the extreme Right and to the secessionists in-between so that we can forge once and for all the unity of Filipino society. This we have to do to solidify our ranks as Filipinos in order to be able to survive in the competitive world outside.

Historically, we haven’t really had a good, strong tradition of cooperation between business and Government in our country. The most we have had in the past is cooperation between government and a few business interests, which has not been good for either business or the country. The dominant tradition is one of excessive government intervention in business, which in turn has been the cause of much business anxiety and even paranoia.

The “regulatory State” is a product of this process, but it is by no means the invention of superzealous bureaucrats and politicians in our country. As contemporary economists and management experts have observed, during the last half century there have been really two distinct theories governing the relations of business and government.

One theory, called “capitalist regulatory economics,” which has been practiced mainly in the advanced Western countries, has been to a great extent appropriated by many in the Philippines. Under this practice, the way to develop the economy is for government to regulate as fully as possible the operations of the private sector, in order to ensure that business doesn’t consecrate everything to the profit motive.

Government and business

The other theory, more recent in practice and popularity, is what economists call “capitalist developmental economics.” And this is what is being practiced in East Asia, our region, principally by Japan and the dragon economies that have emerged in the postwar era. Under this theory, government and business are seen as working energetically together to achieve a common goal: developing national productive capacity, penetrating global markets through aggressive marketing policies and providing liberalized policies designed to make the private sector the engine for economic expansion.

We know about this developmental State because of the catchwords—Japan Inc., South Korea Inc., Taiwan Inc., Singapore Inc.—which, all told, have turned these countries into economic dragons and major players in the world economy.

Even the West is beginning to envy the dynamism of the developmental States of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore as the means to revive its own sagging economy.

We seek to establish this developmental thrust in our country. We see our purposes best served by the ideas and policies of developmental economics. And that means Government working with business in a positive and mutually reinforcing relationship, rather than against business in an adversarial, or confrontational and regulatory manner.

There is now considerable consensus in our country about developmental economics. In the 1992 elections, nearly all the presidential candidates, including me, were in favor in one way or the other of the principle of getting government out of business, wherever business could do it better than government.

Effective government

But it is, of course, one thing to espouse deregulation in general and another thing to push and carry out specific ways of freeing the market for greater competition.

After nine months in office, I know only too well that slogans aren’t enough for effecting reform and instituting change. What we need also is a clear head to appreciate what must be done, a social conscience to attend to the needs of the underprivileged, the ability to persuade others to support critical policies, and the perseverance to nurture momentum and initiative to its conclusion—all of these are infinitely more important.

My Administration remains steady in its program of reform. It has not deviated from its vision for Philippines 2000. And it has been persistent in pushing its policies and programs for freeing the economy and making it more world-competitive. If I have been repetitive about our developmental thrust in forums such as this one tonight, it is mainly because I want everyone—domestic and foreign businessmen alike—to know that we mean what we say when we speak of our resolve to change the climate for economic effort in this country.

We cannot emphasize this point too much. Just the other day, I was reading a book Asia’s New Little Dragons by Steven Schlossstein, which discusses the dynamic emergence of Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. I was struck by what the author said about our country. Schlossstein said: “The Philippines tends to wind up on the bottom of everybody’s list for practically any issue—typically a day late and a dollar short.”

To me the foremost requirement is to ensure our political stability. This is the first important confidence-builder for a nation. And on this we have focused and are focusing our paramount attention. We have already moved a long way in providing this political dimension with effective government and decision-making. Our executive and legislative branches as well as the leaders of the private sector, many of whom are here tonight, have never been more cooperative in shaping the policies requisite for growth than they are now.

But there is another dimension to effective government in which we still fall short—and that is the institutional and managerial dimension, or the ability to carry out policy.

No small victories

For the most part, we tend to take it for granted that once decisions are made, they will be effectively translated into operational realities. In fact, however, administrative bottlenecks in Government and in the private sector may continue to frustrate policies and programs. Sometimes the constraint concerns the lack of managerial know-how, sheer bureaucratic inertia or deliberate political obstructionism.

But whatever the cause, we have to do better in carrying out policies crucial to our national advance. We should allow neither stalemate nor unintended effects to frustrate our development goals.

This crucial managerial dimension keeps our Government managers, like Secretary Rizalino Navarro of Trade and Industry, working late at night seven days a week. And I want to assure you that this Government won’t be passive before that problem. We will do all to remove the roadblocks to effective government. And we will not be content with small victories in this struggle.

By way of illustration, I might mention here what we are doing about carrying out and improving our capabilities regarding both the power shortage and the anticrime drive-two issues acutely felt by your community.

Moving decisively and aggressively

I seek special legislation to deal with the energy crisis in order to deal with a specific problem in the fastest possible way. For the stakes are nothing less than the success of our development effort. I certainly harbor no ambitions that will in any way endanger the democratic institutions we have been at pains to strengthen and defend all these years. And I am willing to stake my more than 40 years of public service to our nation in regard to continuing to uphold and protect our Constitution and our democracy.

I am grateful to the Federation for coming out with a resolution appealing to Congress to fast-track the approval of the bill submitted by the Administration to deal with the power crisis.

Now if we have moved also decisively to reorganize the Philippine National Police and upgrade its professionalism and operational capabilities, this again is designed to improve our ability to deal with crime strictly in our society—especially the kidnappings that have brought much tragedy, anguish and havoc on your community and the economy. The stakes here too are very great, and there are no steps that we should hesitate to take in eradicating this menace from our national life.

If we are moving aggressively to dismantle business monopolies and cartels-including seeking the passage of an antitrust law—it is because we need to level the playing field and open the economy to competition. Unless our system of private enterprise is truly competitive, it can never attain its full potential.

Here I would like to interject a response to our businessmen. A few of them fear that this Government is antibig business. Let me assure you it isn’t so. Indeed, I see our large corporations as the indispensable arm and partner of Government for providing the cutting edge in our economy and enabling it to crack foreign markets for our products. Certainly, I would hope that every Filipino company will rise to bigness—as big as the biggest companies in ASEAN and in our Asia-Pacific region.

By breaking up monopolies or cartels, we do not mean to disapprove of big business in itself or to indict dominance in market share that arises from better products and sounder management. Rather, we mean to check an unconscionable situation that allows a company or group to fix prices because of its exclusive hold on a particular industry, to the detriment of the consuming public and the people’s welfare.

Firmness and fairness

The bottom line of this reform is that firmness and fairness in our economic policies are in the interest of business itself and the public. Let us never forget that most complaints about monopolies and cartels come from businessmen themselves, who find it impossible to operate effectively and competitively when the field is dominated by monopolies.

When I talk of the public or the national interest, I mean the good of the majority, and not just the good of a favored few. This is the heart of my principle of the economic empowerment of our people—that we must bring into the mainstream of policy-making the interests of all who constitute our society, especially the interests of labor and the farming sector, and the interests of the poor, of whom we have so many.

To speak of people empowerment is to speak of a policy of inclusion, not exclusion; a policy of opportunity, not of neglect. Business-Government relations must reflect this orientation of our development effort. Our relationship is not a one-way street. As in marriage, it takes two to make a good, happy and lasting relationship.

So what Government strives to do for business, we expect you in the private sector to match with enterprise, with courage and confidence. Let us not approach the task of developing our country as a challenge in which business will move only when Government has provided all the answers, when there are no longer any risks and when profits have been assured.

Filipino first

This is what I mean by caring, sharing and daring. Please remember those words. They rhyme and so it should not be easy for you to forget them. We care for our people and therefore we must share. And since we must move aggressively, we must also dare during this critical period.

This is why I asked some of our most capable Filipino tycoons to invest first in the Philippines during this critical takeoff period, and not elsewhere abroad, where their help is not so badly needed. Let us remember that—Filipino first.

Government can create the conditions for economic effort by providing the climate and the infrastructure for enterprise of vision and boldness, by ensuring that the risk-reward ratio is enhanced in favor of the entrepreneur.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained—that has always been the rule since time immemorial. On this, our Filipino-Chinese community surely needs no instruction from me. You know this better than I do, for if there is one group that has been most venturesome and enterprising among us, it has been this Federation and the entire Filipino-Chinese community.

In Asia today, as The Economist magazine has reported, the Overseas Chinese community, which numbers some 55 million, is the “the driving force” behind the spectacular growth of many economies in our part of the world. And the Filipino-Chinese community is counted among the Overseas Chinese in that estimate.

So it’s not empty rhetoric for me to hope that in the Philippines, the Filipino-Chinese community will also make a big difference in the achievement of our high goals for our country during this final decade of this century.

I won’t gloss over the many problems we must address to ensure your fruitful participation hi our national life. These are, in fact, uppermost in Government’s concerns. And I assure you that we are not sparing any efforts to ensure the safety of your families and to reform the business environment you operate in.

Filipino-Chinese dynamism

I am happy to learn that the Federation and the Filipino-Chinese community are trying to harmonize their own visions with that of the entire nation. I know that the Federation has done much in this effort, but it can and must do much more.

Let me cite today’s editorial of the Manila Bulletin to press this point further:

For the Philippines to reach the take-off stage for economic development, the country needs families of business entrepreneurs that members of the Federation exemplify to an outstanding degree. Hence, to aim for continued economic growth, society has to encourage the efforts of organizations such as the Federation to instill into the young, the next generation, the virtues of hard work, honesty, diligence, attention to detail, and creative insight into business opportunities which will contribute toward rapid economic growth.

I hope you all saw this editorial extolling the Federation. And I believe in this. But I would like to suggest a correction to the cartoon because the rate of growth shown is not fast enough. Let us make it jump according to the red arrow.

And so as I look at our country today, I see much that we can be proud of and hopeful about. And what are these? First of all, a central strategic position in the geography of Asia and the Pacific. If we look at the map of Japan in the north, Australia in the south, mainland Asia in the east and the Pacific Rim of Canada and the United States in the east (west here), we find the Philippines right there, in the middle of everything. Besides that, we also have rich agricultural and marine resources. On top of that, we have human resources that can be developed as a competitive managerial, financial and labor force, now and for the future. Moreover, our young people are proficient in English and familiar with computers.

Vision of the future

We are now mobilizing the energies of our country for the tasks before us. Whatever obstacles are along the way, we shall strive to remove them.

There is a story about Ted Turner, founder of CNN, or Cable News Network, the mega corporation of the information industry. Turner has a plaque on his desk which says: “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.”

I think this sums up all that is required of us today—of you in business and we in Government. We must lead our institutions to new heights of accomplishment and service to our people and to our country. We must follow the call of reform and development, and heed those among us who offer good counsel and common sense. And if there’s anyone among us unwilling to help or too afraid to move, or unable to lead, then let him or them get out of the way, instead of obstructing our labors.

In God’s good time the day will come when this country—our country—will be a day early and a dollar ahead!