The next 20 years are going to be very good for countries like The Philippines. India and China are leading the way, but they aren't the only young turks at the gym looking for a chance to step into the ring and start swinging away at the last century's big economies.
Right now, out of all the countries looking to move up in the world, The Philippines is easily one of the top contenders. It has a literacy rate higher than China or India, and its rate of English-as-a-second-language fluency is the highest in the world, and still climbing. There is plenty of coast line and good ports yet to be developed, low-cost prime industrial land available, and a government that is euphamistically "quite flexible" in doing what needs to be done to attract foreign investment.
Although weak in mineral wealth, The Philippines' central location (close to Singapore) between Eastern and Western Asia, tropical climate, and inexpensive but highly-qualified human resources make it a fantastic destination for refining and industry. The rise of China as a world consumer will also be increasing demand for crops and natural resources such as timber that grow well in The Philippines.
One of the most appealing places to invest in The Philippines right now is Northern Mindanao, the province of Misamis Oriental, and most specifically that part fronting Macajalar Bay, close to Cagayan De Oro, where I live. Here, costs are very low compared to the rest of The Philippines, the infrastructure is very good, the highway system is good, ocean access is excellent. There will soon be a new international airport and the world's second largest shipbuilding facility located here. The Diwata mountain range immediately to the east acts as a huge barrier to the tropical storms that form southeast of The Philippines, always diverting northward the typhoons that routinely cause destruction elsewhere in the country.
In addition, while Misamis Oriental is safely distant from the small and generally bootless bands of Muslim terrorist groups operating on Mindanao, the presence of these groups has brought worldwide focus to the impoverished nature of the people of Mindanao, and the need for investment here. It's not unreasonable to expect business owners to start considering the irenic potential of their investment decisions in the future; many Muslim-owned multinationals may start looking past Indonesia and Malaysia towards Mindanao as places in which to invest. With a small but significant Mulsim minority, Misamis Oriental may be a safe place to start.
The world is moving forward and is getting smaller. Entirely new considerations that effect where and how business is done are decentralizing business away from the big economies. Small countries are very quickly becoming (or are already) entirely capable of hosting industry that just a decade ago could only function with the resources of Japan, Germany, or America. The Philippines can now match these old established players in factors of production, and do so at a much lower price. The Philippines, for the reasons I listed above... and Misamis Oriental specifically... are at the top of that list for the future of business.
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No actually... not getting paid. (I did think about somehow sending a link to city government though... heheh. Maybe could get some publicity.)
I've just been looking around a lot lately because of the changes that are going on in the world.
Somebody else (whose comment I rejected for being rude and common) accused me of just regurgitating what other people have said.
Actually, I spent all morning researching stuff. I looked up Philippine mineral deposits (none that China doesn't already have, except for something called "Perlite"), looked up where Philippine exports are going, looked up literacy and ESL levels for countries around the world (plus half a dozen other things that I researched but didn't include in the final copy like taxes, government, other harbors, electricity, and internet usage), and drew upon my own observations about the weather, the Muslim groups, the highways, China's rising demand for Philippine's goods, and whether or not Muslim-owned corporations might want to invest here.
I'll make the rejected/retarded commenter a challenge though: If he can prove I'm "regurgitating" my material from some particular source, I'll shut down this blog. Otherwise, he'll just continue to be the twat he always has been. (And we all know who he is.)
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