If JAZA were president
What if the seventh-generation Zobel brothers ran the Philippines for six years? What would be their top three priorities?
This was an interesting hypothetical question asked by financial literacy advocate/writer Rose Fausto to Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (Jaza) and his brother Fernando in a well-attended Shareholders Association of the Philippines (SharePHIL) forum yesterday, where the two were keynote speakers on corporate governance.
For Jaza, the first thing to do would be to build trust in domestic institutions, particularly the tripartite system of government. There is separation of powers among the three branches of the government—executive, legislative and judiciary.
Another priority for Jaza is to uphold the rule of law, noting this was a basic principle for society to operate in.
Likewise an important priority would be to “overweight” education. With a rapidly changing global environment, Jaza said a robust and progressive educational system was imperative.
Fernando Zobel de Ayala, for his part, said the government must have a long-term vision with projects (e.g. infrastructure) to scale. At the end of the day, he said continuing or increasing the momentum of economic growth would be necessary for the Philippines. Admittedly, he said there was a lot of impatience that growth wasn’t trickling down, adding that conventional wisdom (among economists) states that it would take 10-15 years of sustained 6-8 percent growth to really make a difference. As such, it’s imperative for him to identify and support new engines of growth.
Fernando also bats for greater trust between the government and the private sector and for the private sector to be given greater opportunity to do its share in growing the economy.
