Our politicians and government officials are now our number one baggage that is preventing our province from moving ahead with its development projects.
Their childish and inane behavior distracts us all from the real priorities.
By putting their egos above everything else, Tom and Gwen miserably failed in demonstrating real leadership.
Tolerating them by our silence and inaction can only lead to further delay in the province’s development.
Last April, I was in Ho Chi Minh City to attend the Vietnam Economic Forum.
My objective was specifically to understand how and why Vietnam has been growing so fast (7-8 percent) the past decade and attracting so much foreign direct investment (US $10 billion last year, and another US $12 billion expected this year).
My number one conclusion: existence of a stable/focused/effective government and the absence of noisy/inane/self-serving/patronage-based politics.
My conclusion is based on one anecdotal experience and a data-based presentation.
My anecdotal experience: Vietnam had its election for its National Assembly last May 20.
From the National Assembly they were going to elect the president and appoint the prime minister and Cabinet.
I was there April 23, which was barely a month before their election.
I was surprised to see that their local newspaper hardly had anything about the election unlike in the Philippines where political noise dominates the media six months before the election.
In the four days that I stayed there, I saw only a tiny reference about the election on my last day of stay.
In the preceding three days, there was absolutely no mention about the election.
My anecdotal experience was further reinforced when CNN.com commented in its May 20th edition:
“While many ordinary citizens seem more focused on work and family than politics, the government has been doing its best to get them interested.”
My data-based conclusion is a result of a presentation by Shozo Sakata of the Jetro Institute of Developing Economies.
The slide summarizes the “Risk Ranking” of Asian countries as perceived by Japanese enterprises.
It is not much of a stretch to believe that these perceptions are also representative of all foreign investors.
Thus, to me, this result very clearly explains why Vietnam got US $10 billion FDI last year while the Philippines got only US $2 billion, the same amount that Ho Chi Minh City got. (to be continued)
