President Benigno S. Aquino III, assisted by SACASOL’s chairman Jose Maria “Jomari” Zabaleta and president Jose Maria “Sech” Zabaleta, Jr., leads the Ceremonial Switch-on of the San Carlos Solar Energy, Inc. (SACASOL) Phase I during the Inauguration Ceremony at the San Carlos Ecozone in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental on Thursday (May 15, 2014). The SaCaSol project is a greenfield, stand alone solar farm that would supply daytime base load power to the local grid throughout the entire year. It is expected to have a total gross capacity of 22 MW to be developed in two phases: Phase 1 with 13 MW and Phase 2 with 9 MW. The solar farm will provide supplemental electricity to an area of short supply and increasing demand for power. Its goal is to harness sustainable power from our planet’s largest source of energy, the sun. The Project is committed to maintaining the environmental integrity of the surrounding area. (MNS photo)
MANILA (AFP) – The Philippine economy will more than double in the next decade as earnings from overseas workers and business outsourcing surge, a respected US-based think-tank said Monday.
Once the region’s perennial economic laggard, the Southeast Asian country is poised to stage a major comeback to be one of the top three economies in the region by 2030, forecast Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist for IHS.
“(The) Philippines economy has undergone a remarkable transition from a pussycat into a tiger economy over the last decade,” he said in a statement issued ahead of the holding of the World Economic Forum on East Asia meeting in Manila this week.
“The Philippine economy has the capacity for robust long-term economic growth of around 4.5 percent to 5.0 percent per year over the 2016 to 2030 time horizon,” the report said.
The economy will grow from its present level of about $280 billion to $680 billion by 2024, “with a projected GDP of $1.2 trillion by 2030,” he added.
He cited the strong growth of remittances from the estimated 10 million Filipinos working overseas as well as the local business process outsourcing industry, which has surged in the past decade.
But Biswas also warned that in order to sustain economic growth, the Philippines will have to improve conditions to attract more investment to the key tourism and manufacturing sectors.
He warned that the country still ranked very poorly on the World Bank’s ratings for ease of doing business.
He also cited government figures showing that despite the rapid growth, one in four Filipinos still lives in poverty while unemployment and underemployment remain serious problems.
The Philippines has been one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia in recent years, posting 7.2 percent growth in 2013.