THE Duterte administration will keep a hands-off policy on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), agreeing with its leadership’s current monetary stance.
Also, the tourism sector will continue to be a priority under the incoming administration, Carlos G. Dominguez said in a phone interview with the BusinessMirror. Dominguez heads the economic cluster of newly elected President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s transition team, and is said to be taking over the Department of Finance (DOF). He clarified, though, that he has not yet accepted the DOF post, and is “just helping out in the transition committee.”
Dominguez also assured that Amando Tetangco Jr. would remain as the BSP governor: “That’s a constitutional body; you cannot touch that. And if I had my way, Tetangco would remain beyond his term. He’s done well.”
The BSP Charter, however, forbids the reappointment of any Monetary Board member, including the BSP governor, more than once.
Tetangco, hailed one of the world’s best central bankers for seven consecutive years by the Global Finance magazine, is expected to step down in 2017, with the expiration of his six-year term. It is his second and last appointment as BSP chief.
Under his stewardship at the BSP, inflation rates in the Philippines have dropped to historic lows, while gross international reserves are at their highest levels.
Last Thursday the Monetary Board, the policy-making body of the BSP, decided to maintain its key policy rates at 4 percent for overnight borrowing, and 6 percent for overnight lending.
Duterte had earlier fingered the BSP and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), which is chaired by Tetangco, as the source of information used by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV to accuse the then-presidential candidate of hiding illegal wealth in several local bank accounts. Duterte had also threatened both institutions that they would be “in hot water,” if he wins the national elections. The BSP and the AMLC subsequently denied this charge by Duterte.
Meanwhile, Dominguez said, “tourism will be one of the priorities in our rural-development program,” which forms part of the incoming administration’s eight-point economic agenda. He stressed that “not only should tourism in the big cities be promoted, but also in the rural areas. The Philippines is a beautiful country, and we intend to leverage on this strength to boost economic growth.”
But he said the hunt is still on who should head the Department of Tourism (DOT), as well as other key government agencies, such as the departments of Agriculture (DA), Energy and Transportation and Communications, etc. He said he already had spoken with Ramon Jimenez Jr., and asked him to remain as tourism secretary, “but he declined the offer, owing to personal reasons.”
He said Jimenez was still mourning the recent passing of his wife, Abi Lee Jimenez, an advertising pioneer like her husband.
It was under Jimenez’s leadership that the DOT had crafted its award-winning country brand “It’s More Fun in the Philippines”; established a convergence program with the Department of Public Works and Highways that identified tourism sites that needed vital road networks and public infrastructure, and twice mounted Madrid Fusión Manila, the largest gastronomic congress in Asia.
Tourism sources intimated that Duterte’s policy of keeping Davao safe while he was mayor has enabled the city’s tourism sector to grow. The tourism industry is, likewise, close to Dominguez’s heart, as he owns two hotels—Marco Polo in Davao City and Linden Suites in the Ortigas Central Business District. He is also a partner in Microtel UP TechnoHub in Diliman and Microtel Eagle Ridge, Cavite.
Under the Aquino administration, foreign-visitor arrivals grew by a compounded annual rate of 8.77 percent from 2010 to 2015, higher than the 7.76 percent achieved from 2001 to 2010. International tourism receipts also showed a dramatic twofold surge from P112.55 billion in 2010 to P227.62 billion in 2015.
Last year total inbound tourists rose by some 11 percent to 5.36 million, while international visitor receipts were up by 3.3 percent to P235 billion.
In 2015 tourism employment was estimated to have reached some 5 million, with a share of 12.7 percent to national employment. The DOT is currently finalizing its new tourism road map, the National Tourism Development Plan for 2017-2022, which will set the new annual domestic and international visitors targets, as well as outline the programs and schemes to reach those goals. The new plan will be presented to the incoming tourism secretary in July.
Image credits: Julian Abram Wainwright/Bloomberg
1 comment
Duterte has nothing yet to say anything about land reform, industrialization, debt repudiation, smuggling, etc. The nation is waiting !!!