Philippine Business Magazine: Volume 9 No. 2 - Visions
I Have a Dream
Dream of a future that is ours and do not allow silent terrorists — the skeptics and the doubtful who do not believe in us or in themselves — to win
By Endika M. Aboitiz

I would like to share with you my thoughts about the future of our economy and our business — how it should be and how I think it will be.

Right now, who cares about the future? For those of you who are over forty, you still have the memories of your youth and your dreams. The future is about dreams; youth is about dreams. When we stop dreaming, we begin to wither.

Fortunately, we live in a country of continuous challenge. The main challenges are the forces that keep trying to destroy our dreams, our future.

Let me tell you the story of the three space associations that met to discuss their plans, their dreams: the American NASA, the Chinese NASA, and the Spanish NASA. The American NASA came up to speak first. They told the other two that they were going to land a man on Mercury and everybody clapped in awe. Then the Chinese NASA told the other two that they were going to land a man on Jupiter and everybody sighed in fascination. The Spanish NASA came to the podium and spoke bravely of how they were going to land a man on the Sun and everyone shook their heads in disbelief. The moderator then asked if the Spanish NASA head could explain how this was possible, considering all knowledge they had would indicate that any space ship that was to approach the Sun would disintegrate way before it could get anywhere close. The Spanish NASA chief came up confidently to speak and said, “Very simple. We will travel only at night, in the cool of the morning dawn.” As we dream, we know that there are always possibilities and that, of course, we need to be realists.

Right Formula
Today, as a nation we have a dream. We have a Chief Executive and her team with a dream that I believe we all share. A dream that is bigger than all of us — the alleviation of poverty by 2010. We dream of more Filipinos with more money; more Filipinos paying more taxes; more Filipinos in more of our shopping malls; more Filipinos in more of our aircraft; more Filipinos in more of our ships; more Filipinos buying more beer; more Filipinos buying more cars; we dream of more tourists in more of our hotels; we dream of more investors in more of our export zones.

We are all businessmen, we all know the formula. First, get the macroeconomics right – deficit, interest rates, inflation, stable exchange rates, the right legislation. Then get the local atmosphere right – security, law and order — and the rest follows. First the locals invest, then the foreigners invest, and we start with the right kind of poverty alleviation — that of more jobs and more employment.

I realize that I am preaching to the converted and that you all know this. Realistically, is it happening?

I will borrow from Secretary Camacho’s simple but passionate and effective delivery in New York at the Philippine briefing of the World Economic Forum. The skeptics said that President Arroyo and her team were facing a P200 billion deficit. The skeptics said that the PGMA team could not contain that deficit at P145 billion. They came in at P147 billion. The skeptics said that the dollar would float to 60 per peso. Today, we have a stable dollar at 51 and probably headed to break 50. The skeptics said that inflation would run away with the deficit we were facing and followed by interest rate rises. Today we see the lowest interest rates and inflation figures that we have seen in our recent memory.

Dream Dampeners
I dream of less poor Filipinos. I dream of less poor Filipinos because I see a team at the helm of our joint venture, called the Philippines, that is addressing the problems that they should address. Now, there are concerns, very serious ones. Am I concerned with the terrorists out there? Experience has taught us that terrorists without the fuel of right and the fuel of the truth burn out and die sooner than we fear. Their only fuel is our fear and our attention.

The terrorists that really concern me are those that dent our belief in ourselves — that skeptical group of intelligent, educated people among the better trained of our society that run around preaching doubt; people of authority that dent the young in us; people with influence that extinguish that valuable fire of excitement.

There is no doubt that we are capable of achieving our national dream of poverty alleviation by 2010 — no doubt at all unless of course the doubt is in us. When the doubt is in us, we lose capability in exponential proportion to our doubt. Our economic future as businessess is totally alligned with this government’s plan for the alleviation of poverty which, in our language, means more purchasing power to more Filipinos.

The focus on IT/proccessing and tourism, I think, is correct. IT/processing addresses jobs for the educated. Tourism spreads wealth faster than almost any industry. Farm jobs can go to tourism short term. They cannot go to IT/processing immediately.
China and its development are an opportunity and not a threat. We will lose those manufacturing jobs but we will win their tourists. Tourist jobs are more valuable than manufacturing jobs. I hear that there were seven million Chinese tourists that left China for the Chinese New Year. Apparently only 200,000 came to the Philippines. Here lies our opportunity.

Since we have so many overseas workers, the world has become our employment arena. One can argue that our GDP figures and our employment figures should reflect that. The globalization that brings us the mobility of goods, services, and capital will force the increased mobility of labor and new wealth will be created.

Growth and Opportunity
I will take a leap of faith and share with you what I think the future will bring us. I am sure we will beat this year’s GDP estimates. I say we, because we have to beat them together. These are our nation’s targets set by our leader, the President. When they are achieved, we are the biggest winners. I am sure that we will beat this year’s fiscal deficit targets; the peso will strengthen; and that this time next year, there will be those of us who invested and are happy that we did.

And so we at WG&A Super-ferries dream of building a passenger ferry business rooted in standards comparable to those anywhere in the world, preparing for effects of more Filipinos with greater purchasing power. We are voting in the future of our economy with our wallets. We have just closed an order for two modern superferries. A US$20-million deal supported by another US$10 million of hardware and software to upgrade our people and our systems for the future.

This future, however, is an uphill future with rough roads ahead of us as we climb. It is not the Philippine terrain, however, that requires enterprises to be on permanent four wheel drive. It is the world terrain that will be a mountain road. Borderless worlds mean just that — offroad and onroad capability. We at WG&A Supeferries have built that capability.

This is a future I believe in — a future of growth and opportunity; a future that is ours unless we allow silent terrorists, the skeptics, the doubtful that do not believe in us or in themselves to win. I do not think we will allow that. In ending, I would like to invite all of you to come take a ride in our Superferries across our magnificent country.

Endika Aboitiz is President & CEO of WG&A.
Speech delivered during the Philippine Business Outlook 2002 organized by the Knowledge Institute, 28 February 2002.