Economic Interactions and Flows

Businesses under industries such as manufacturing, construction, and call centers give the Philippines a promise of 8% GDP growth

             Link: http://www.blog.openaccessbpo.com/call-center-among-the-philippines-tickets-to-8-gdp/

Call me: Tech powers Philippines call centre success

             Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-18061909

       I chose an article on the call centers in the Philippines because I wanted to find out how technology has influenced the Philippines in a positive way. I found the article interesting because although I have been living in the Philippines for 8 years, I was not aware of or did not recognize the development of technology and the success of call centers here. However, while reading the article, I have thought about times when I passed by different number of buildings or went inside. Almost all the buildings had at least one call center where many local people were working 24 hours with night shift. After reading the article, I was able to find out how internet and other technology such as social media have come together with the friendly characteristics of Filipinos and their fluency in English to bring the call centers to a success. Moreover, expanding of outsourcing business in the Philippines will allow job opportunities for local people to increase and technology to improve.

       What are some limitations present in outsourcing of business in the Philippines and how can those be improved?

Political Outcomes

PH services sector seen to gain from ASEAN integration


Rod Severino, Omkar Shrestha, and Jay Menon at the book launch

Jayant Menon, ADB lead economist

Link to the article:
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/03/21/14/ph-services-sector-seen-gain-asean-integration

Summary of the article
          Asian Development Bank's economist for trade and regional integration, Jayant Menon, said that ASEAN is being advantageous to the Philippines as he found that the country's communication skills and education system within the area of services were better compared to other ASEAN countries; however, he said that too many workers going abroad will not be good in the long run. Menon added that the ASEAN Economic Community allowing low skilled workers to be traded among ASEAN countries won't be good for both local and foreign countries as workers can cause problems or receive unequal treatment. The area of agriculture is also getting better and as a whole, Menon said that although there are many things to improve on, he hopes those to be finished by 2015.

My thoughts
          It is a great idea to put a certain date on a goal, in this case improvement in a country, because although the set goal(s) can't be done by the set date, all the process, efforts and work done will still continue and get done as that is what almost everyone will hope. It is true that many of the Philippines' workers are working abroad and they are helpful in the Philippines' country as remittances allow flow of money. However, the bad side is that I have heard some of the workers getting unequal treatments because they are either low skilled or unaware of the laws. I agree that the Philippines is improving alot on services as education level increases. However, it is also true that most of those highly skilled people are aiming to go abroad for work which will not be good for the long term effects because if this continues to happen, less contribution of their knowledge will be spread to their home country. Although some view that 2015 is to soon for all the goals to happen, I believe that things will sort out well quickly and goals will be reached faster than people think.

Socio-cultural Exchange

Choose either the concept of cultural diffusion (voluntary/consented change in culture) or cultural imperialism (enforced/pressured change in culture) and using specific examples explain how transnational corporations either intentionally or unintentionally spread consumerism through your chosen concept.

              Cultural diffusion is a concept where a certain culture voluntarily accepts change in culture. Mostly, it results as transnational corporations spread consumerism and bring the culture of the originating country to other countries. Products that transnational corporations bring to other countries range from clothes to food and these are sometimes intentionally or unintentionally spread. Before transnational corporations spread consumerism, some people may also bring their country's products to foreign countries or bring foreign products to their own country as they travel which also result in cultural diffusion or trigger transnational corporations for their new approach.

            Food is one of the factors that causes cultural diffusion in many of the countries around the world. With media and through travel, people learn a lot about other countries' food and get interested on other cultures. With the advent of fast food, transnational corporations started to aim people in foreign countries to sell their products. For example, McDonald's have been successful in South Korea when it first started as hamburgers and french fries were new to Koreans. Other example of foreign food in Korea which has been successful is pizza as it is different from traditional dishes of South Korea. As transnational corporations have brought food to different parts of the world which increased people's interest, many countries like Asia still keep their own culture with traditional food but are being greatly affected as the center of the culture is slightly changing without people noticing about it.

           

Pros and Cons of Globalization

Pros and Cons of Globalization
Pros	Cons
- organization learn skills from other international organizations	- makes the rich countries richer and poor counries poorer ex. the wealth gap increases
- organizations can invest on the broader area	- loss of culture or a country's uniqueness ex. local people looking for foreign goods
- constant flow of cash to developing countries	- there is a presence of labor exploitation ex. long working hours, low salary, poor working environment
- one country learns about other so there is mix of culture	- experienced people tend to lose their job as techonology take their place ex. machines are made and developed
- people from rural areas get to know more about urban areas through modernization	- The profits of multinational corporations go back to the home country