In a few days we will hear PNoy’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA). We will likely hear a report that will narrate accomplishments. Hopefully, the report will also admit failures, shortcomings and shortfalls, and what we hope are plausible explanations for these rather than palpable excuses. We will also hear about "the next steps." 

 

I think much more than these, most of us would like to hear what results the government hopes to achieve by the end of 2013, the end of 2014, 2015 and by the start of 2016 by way of livelihood and employment generated, the increase in level of income, and the number of people who will finally be freed from the clutches of poverty. 

 

It is impressive to know that billions of pesos will be spent for "hard" infrastructure -- roads, bridges, ports, airport, etc. Extensions of, and inter-connecting, the super highways of Luzon is good but that will benefit mainly the already established areas of Luzon. What that will do for inclusive growth is not all that clear. Many would like to know specific plans for building better farm-to-market roads in the Visayas and Mindanao provinces where these will have greater impact on agricultural development and rural poverty, together with strategically located post-harvest facilities -- granaries, silos, warehouses, drying facilities, sea and airport improvements.

 

Many of us would be encouraged with news that the budget for agricultural and fisheries modernization and development will be substantially raised so that the livelihood and employment, hence, family incomes, in the agricultural and fisheries sectors will grow in quantum terms.
 

Secretary Proceso Alcala and the DA staff seem to have been making great headways. By next year, they say, we will no longer import rice and we would have started exporting specialty rice -- black, purple, brown, red, et.al., grown by some of our poorest farmers. We would like to see more of this, as we would like to see higher volume of feed corn exports to South Korea (from 15 metric tons to 45) even as local supply is raised. 

 

Still, there is much to do on achieving inclusive growth that agricultural modernization and diversification will help spur. If Mindanao is the other food basket of the country, I would like to hear PNoy say that more resources will flow to the island within this year.

 

There are small farmers (in Sarangani province, for example) eager to grow alternative crops like sweet potatoes for which there are industrial buyers, but they need some assistance from the government in modernizing farming practices and setting up better agricultural facilities. The government can also broker "big brother-small brother" relationships between industrial firms and farmers that will be sustainably beneficial to all parties. I like to hear PNoy say Secretaries Alcala, Singson, Paje, Montejo, Jimenez, Abaya and their organizations are on top of priority convergence projects that are aimed to do precisely these to achieve much needed reports he can report by June 2014. 

 

A drive for agriculture and fisheries modernization will go a long way in initially stimulating the light manufacturing sector. Manufacturing must be strongly encouraged. It will be the sector that can absorb many of our less academically qualified and vocationally oriented youth. 

 

The need for more modern tools and implements and their manufacture and servicing close to the farms ought to serve as impetus to locating these facilities in urbanizing areas close to the farms and fishponds/fish pens/fish cages where these are needed. These light (metal) industries can be, and should be started soon in the regional and major provincial centers of Regions 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 and Caraga (I confess to not mastering the new regional clusters). 

 

To further spur light manufacturing, the next small arms purchases of both the AFP and the PNP should go to our only internationally known arms manufacturer instead of foreign manufacturers as a means of building up self-defense capabilities. It is also time to spend serious money to rebuild our shipbuilding industry. We are an archipelago highly dependent on water transport. It is pathetic that we have allowed this sector to deteriorate so badly. Rebuilt, the sector may be expected to build the ships our shipping industry and defense establishment need.
 

 

A precondition to these, of course, is PNoy announcing the "fast-tracking" of power generation projects even as more ecologically sustainable ventures of longer gestation are being worked out. We can’t modernize without electricity.

 

Lastly, I would like to hear PNoy announce the immediate review and speedy action on constitutional provisions that, while well-meant, have served to slow down rather than help our economic growth. 

 

our heritage by placing them in purely Filipino hands is working as intended or is working at all. I think many foreign investors have the greater motivations to constantly maintain and upgrade these "national treasures" and their surroundings and ancillary activities and facilities given their tie-ups with these investors’ related ventures (travel and tourism).

 

The 60-40 provision on ownership has held up investments because very, very few, if any, of our local investors are willing to put up enough money up to 60% of any of the critical but lower return-on-investment and slower pay-back period ventures in agriculture that foreign investors, on the other hand with their downstream links, are willing to go into. 

 

I have no reason to believe that we can expect strictly Pinoy monies to flow into these projects within the next 12 to 36 months. They have not been committed in the past nor even lately. Instead they have gone to projects that have fueled the non-inclusive growth we have been experiencing.

 

There may be a very good upside to allowing the foreign investors greater elbow room. They not only shake up the competition arena, they may just allow our people the kind of livelihoods and employment choices that are not tied to patronage politics.

 

If I hear PNoy say most (I am hoping for ALL) of these, I would be well fueled and revved up for the next 12 months! 

 

Mario Antonio G. Lopez wrote this piece for the column To Take a Stand in BusinessWorld.